Q: Our son is 28. He moved out. He is the legal owner of our family dog. But now will not allow us to even see the dog.
We always had a very good relationship with our son. We were the primary care taker of the family dog for 10 years while our son lived with us. Our son moved out and is living with a person who hates her parents. All of a sudden now our son hates us. We understand he does not have to see us but he is refusing to let us even see our beloved dog. He is the legal owner but when he first moved out we did see him and the dog often. There were a few months when he had his brother bring the dog over and that was working for everyone. But now our son has stopped that even though his brother still visits us weekly. We feel our son is acting like the family dog is a possession he can just take away from us. Under NYS law even though this is not a divorce case, can we take our son to court to have a mandated chaperoned visit? Do we have a case? Can we win?
A: If you are acknowledging your son is the legal owner and you do not wish to have permanent and sole possession of the dog, it would be difficult to convince a court to give you visitation rights. However, your burden would be to prove why it is in the dog's best interest for you to have visitation despite your son's refusal. It would be an expensive and possibly unsuccessful effort.
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