Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are reportedly warring over who gets their adopted mutt, Bear, in the wake of her cheating scandal. See dog- and catfights involving Katy Perry, Jake Gyllenhaal, and more stars and civilians.
Bella Swan may have chosen a vampire over a werewolf, but in real life Kristen Stewart is deeply attached to the pet dog she shared with Robert Pattinson. The couple, who appeared to split last month after she a cheating scandal, adopted the mutt, Bear, from a shelter in New Orleans, but according to RadarOnline, “after Rob moved his things of their Los Angeles home, he then told Kristen he wanted Bear.” Stewart won’t part with her baby so easily though, a source claims: “She helped Rob save Bear from Parvo disease, which nearly took its life when it was a puppy. She wants joint custody—and it could get a little messy.” Will Bear go with Team Rob or Team Kristen? All will be revealed in Twilight: Breaking Up.
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She came to the marriage with Kitty Purry. He brought Morrissey the Cat. And together, Katy Perry and Russell Brand adopted Krusty—a tabloid-ready blending of “Katy” and his nickname (“Rusty”). Alas, when it came time to divorce, it’s always the kitties who suffer the most. While Perry ultimately won custody of Krusty, she has reportedly hired a cat shrink to help with the behavioral problems her pets have recently developed. “Katy sees her cats as more like friends than pets, so she didn’t think twice about hiring the cat whisperer,” a source told The Daily Star. “She often talks to Kitty and Krusty when she’s feeling down, and they always manage to cheer her up. The fact they’ve been acting weirdly has really bothered her. She doesn’t mind how many sessions she has to pay for, she just wants things back to normal.”
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How much would you spend to retain custody of your beloved dog? A couple hundred? A few thousand? If you’re Craig Dershowitz, the magic number is north of $60,000. Earlier this year, the 34-year-old New Yorker revealed that he had spent his life savings—and then some—to get Knuckles back from his ex-girlfriend, who had taken the beagle-pug mix to Los Angeles when they broke up. (“Knuckles lives a happy and healthy life in California with me, where he has ample room to play, and lives in close proximity to a beach for off-leash dog-park outings,” Brega said in court documents.) Dershowitz even started a website to raise money for his legal fund, but in May a judge in L.A. ruled in favor of Brega.
Here’s another pet custody battle that required a Solomonic decision. In 2006, Angela Colicheski’s African gray parrot, Tequila, accidentally flew away. Soon after, Sarita Lytell found the bird, renamed him Lucky, and cared for him for three years, until the two women had a chance meeting and discovered their feathery connection. When Lytell refused to return the parrot, Colicheski sued. But Palm Beach County Judge James Martz was very clear about why the lost bird belonged to its original owner: “If the plaintiff had lost her automobile somehow along the way would it be any less her property when she found it?” he said. “Pets are chattel, they're no different from your automobile.” And so Lucky became Tequila again.
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They went from puppy love to a real dogfight. After breaking up in 2005, Jake Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst battled for custody of Atticus Finch, the German shepherd they adopted together. In the end, Gyllenhaal was awarded Atticus, but Dunst reportedly has visitation rights.
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In a legal case reminiscent of Tequila the Parrot, 20-year-old Jordan Biggs was arrested earlier this summer in Corvallis, Ore., after she refused to return a dog she had found in 2011 to his original owner, Sam Hanson-Fleming. Biggs trained the dog she named Bear, a Siberian husky mix, as a service dog to aid her with asthma attacks when she could not find its owner. After being released from jail, she then hired an animal rights attorney while the police investigate charges that Hanson-Fleming abused the dog he called Chase. “I’ve never hit Chase, I’ve never kicked him,” Hanson-Fleming said. “The only thing I’ve done is swatted him with a rolled up newspaper to discipline him for chewing on shoes.”
Amanda Cowan, The Corvallis Gazette-Times / AP Photo
In 1984, when legendary rodeo star Montie Montana divorced Elly, his wife of 12 years, dividing their $4 million estate came down to one issue: who would get custody of Larry the Horse? “I want him 100 percent,” Montie said at the time. “Not joint custody, absolutely not. He’s my horse. I’ll never give him to her, never ever, and never in my wildest dreams did I say, ‘I’m buying that horse for you.’” But Elly countered: “There’s no reason on God’s green earth that he needs that horse. He has 10 other wonderful trained horses.” Two years later, the Montanas finally settled their case privately, but revealed the fate of Larry—he was awarded to Montie. “I feel like I’m getting my right arm back again,” he said.
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A week before her 2011 wedding, Crystal Harris ended her engagement to Hugh Hefner—but she let him keep their Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Charlie, as a consolation prize. Then a few months later, Harris decided she wanted the dog back. “We both love the puppy,” Hefner told People. “I told her if she wants to keep the ring and the Bentley, then maybe I can keep the puppy. I [hope] we will work it out.” In the end, the man with countless Bunnies got to keep the dog—and the girl. Harris moved back into the Playboy Mansion earlier this summer.
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When Karel Fortyn, a 52-year-old reptile zoo curator, died in 2011, he left behind no will—and more than 200 snakes and crocodiles. Karel’s brother, Jan, flew from the Czech Republic to claim the estate, but Dana Kubias, Karel’s former common-law wife and business partner, stepped forward to say she was entitled to the animals since she owned the house where they resided. “I would like that the whole collection be kept together somewhere else in my brother’s memory,” said Jan Fortyn. “It shouldn’t be split if possible… What you can see here is his kids, so thanks to that I intend to put them all together.” A judge eventually awarded Jan custody of the kids.
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Several months after Paris Hilton adopted a kitten she named Prada from the Kris Kelly Foundation in Los Angeles, she took him to the vet—and left him there. Prada was rescued by the foundation, which then issued a statement: “We gave Ms. Hilton every opportunity to do the right thing for Prada but she failed to comply and then abandoned him. After seven days no one from her household has even contacted us or the vet’s office to check on the well-being and whereabouts of poor Prada. We now have Prada in a foster home and have no intention of giving him back to Ms. Hilton. She has proved to be a negligent pet owner.” But Hilton’s representatives told TMZ the case was just a publicity stunt by Kris Kelly. In other words, yes, it got catty.
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