The couple had a whole pack of dogs in their care when they were married, but when they decided to divorce, figuring out how to divide their “children” turned into a legal battle.
The matter came before a Nuremberg court which ultimately ruled in a decision announced on Tuesday on the side of protecting the pets.
The court decided that the pups will stay with the ex-wife, with whom they have been living in recent months, because putting them through yet another environmental change and separating them from another new relative - the ex-wife’s new partner - would be “unreasonable”.
The formerly married couple originally had six dogs before the separation and at first the wife moved the dogs in with her. Two of them later died. The ex-husband then asked that some of the dogs come to live with him, which the court ultimately rejected.
The court asked various questions of the pair before coming to its decision: Were the dogs more important to one person than the other? Was one of them more able to care for the dogs?
But the court could not determine whether one of the former partners had more interest in the dogs, and both seemed to equally care for their pets.
Therefore the judges decided to rule based on protecting the animals.
“Essential to the decision was ultimately that if two of the dogs went to the husband, the pack would again be torn apart,” a court spokesman said.
“Another environmental change and the separation from a person they formed a significant relationship with over nine months would be unreasonable for the dogs in the view of the family senate.”
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