Divorcees agree on visitation and dog ownership regime in Argentina

A family court in San Isidro, a municipality north of Buenos Aires, approved the understanding to share the dogs Kiara (9 years old) and Popeye (6), reached by Amorina Abascoy (47) and her ex-husband, Emmanuel Medina (42) .

Amorina stayed with Popeye and Emmanuel with Kiara, but sometimes they switch places of residence. The four are regularly seen together, in addition, on a local beach, on the banks of the Río de la Plata.

The judicial decision has a value of jurisprudence when in the country there is no clear legal system that guides the cases of ‘multispecies family’ formed by humans and animals.

“There are no problems with the four of us meeting, even though we are separated,” Abascoy told news channel A24.

The couple, who had no children, were married for 15 years.

The only pending dispute between them is that the man usually feeds Kiara empanadas and the woman does not share the idea and supplies Popeye with balanced food.

Their attorney, Brian Knobel, has told reporters that Abascoy and Medina believe the dogs should be considered “non-human persons with feelings.”

In 2015, the Argentine justice considered the orangutan Sandra a “non-human subject with fundamental rights”, held captive in a zoo in Buenos Aires where she was alone and from which she was later transferred to a sanctuary in the United States.