New Guy

[BigDan]

Hello everyone my wife and myself just filed last friday and got our 341 date yesterday. As far as questions I have one. Our attorney went through all of our stuff and at the end he said you guys are good the only assets you have are your four dogs (Great Danes) My question is can the court or trustee make us surrender then dogs or are we safe with them? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Daniel

[JRScott]

Pets is always a sticky issue for folks, because generally we consider our pets invaluable, whereas to other people they are often not worth much. I suppose the question here is are they pure bred danes or are the mongrels?

I'd just like claim the pets were worth a few dollars each and exempt them with some wildcard if you can .

[jadams]

Barring something that looks fraudulent (like buying expensive puppies on the eve of filing), if they don't have a pedigree that makes them valuable for breeding purposes, they are not an asset the trustee would be interested in.

They're looking for stud horses and the like that can get thousands per "deposit". Even the best dog blood lines aren't in the same league.

Dogs are like kids. Far more of a liability than an asset. And, in this instance, that's a good thing.

Good luck with your case, and keep those dogs company.

[justbroke]

You are probably safe with them unless you use them for stud purposes and their "value" is significant. See the post above where JRScott writes about stud horses. That is a lucrative business and the studs are valuable.

Generally, though, pets are family members and though invaluable to the owner, are worth very little. If these pets are "show animals" they could be worth more.

Besides, if you only have the four dogs and no other assets, your lawyer probably covered them under a wildcard exemption.

[want2save]

I was concerned about this same thing. I did list my dogs on my petition but I noticed my attorney just dropped them when his office prepared it. They have no value to others. I have AKC Ch (s) but since I also do agility with them I neutered them when they finished as this makes for better performance dogs. They would not run agility for anyone but me. They have no value to anyone but my family. Show dogs have little value to others unless they are Best in Show winners that many people would like to own. Dogs do not change homes as easily as horses for example. My dogs would be major problems if they were re homed, they know nothing but life with us and they are a breed not easily handled by strangers. This is NOT a dumb question at all. If you are like me, your dogs are your family and you would not give them up under any circumstances.

[jribe]

Hello everyone my wife and myself just filed last friday and got our 341 date yesterday. As far as questions I have one. Our attorney went through all of our stuff and at the end he said you guys are good the only assets you have are your four dogs (Great Danes) My question is can the court or trustee make us surrender then dogs or are we safe with them? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Daniel

are your dogs "show dogs" of some sort? My two dogs were about $1200 each; and while they are "pure bred" they are not for show or breeding; just our family pets. No trustee in that instance would try and take your dogs away from you. What "value" would they be placing on them? It's not like the trustee could easily sell your 4 grown dogs...

[Flowers]

hi Daniel, welcome and hope you are feeling better now that you are filed.
I say unless the dogs are of some value, meaning for breeding and it is a big big business or they just won at Best in Show at Westminster Kennel Club , you are probably in the clear.
Sorry you are even worrying about this.
They'll be fine.
Go and give 'em a scratch on the head for me!

[BigDan]

Thanks for the info. I was totally against filing bankruptcy but my wife talked me into it. The only reason I was against it is because her aunt and uncle are on their 3rd one and are losing their house this time and her dad is getting ready to do his 2nd or 3rd one and they act as if it is no big deal that it happens all the time. I just don't want to end up on the path they are going down and she gets very confrontational when I ask to take over the families bill paying job. I got even more scared when she started talking about the dogs while we were in the lawyers office and he said oh we will throw them in with the bankruptcy then after he figured everything out he said well your dogs are your only asset I was like crap they are going to take my boys away from me. They are all neutered so no breeding and they don't show. They are all from a rescue I volunteer at. The only one that does any community work is my oldest one and he does patient therapy for kids with autism. The other three just go on walks with me in the evening and in the morning.
I am really glad I found this forum. Reading some of the things on here has helped me understand better the do's and don'ts like I am going on a trip in september that last from the 19th to the 22nd but we have our 341 hearing the morning of the 22nd and from what I read it isn't a good idea to reschedule so I will be coming back a day early even though this trip is an every year thing and gets planned way far ahead of anything else.

Thanks a bunch,
Daniel

[justplaintired]

We have pugs and to us they are priceless, 2 with papers, 1 not. The female with papers is fixed, and 8 yrs old, not of much value in the breeding world. One male not fixed, no great bloodline to anyone else, but a super pug to us(the one in the pic under my name), only bred so we could get another pug free. Last pug, son of the one in the pic, no papers, but a super wonderful pug to us.

Our plan is to bred our male a few more times so we can get another free male, who we will fix.

Anyway, we included them in our assets. No great value, only to us. To us they are more valuable then any other asset we have, to the trustee, they weren't even mentioned. So don't worry, most likely no trustee will want your pets.

[PdxDavid]

We have pugs and to us they are priceless, 2 with papers, 1 not. The female with papers is fixed, and 8 yrs old, not of much value in the breeding world. One male not fixed, no great bloodline to anyone else, but a super pug to us(the one in the pic under my name), only bred so we could get another pug free. Last pug, son of the one in the pic, no papers, but a super wonderful pug to us.

Our plan is to bred our male a few more times so we can get another free male, who we will fix.

Anyway, we included them in our assets. No great value, only to us. To us they are more valuable then any other asset we have, to the trustee, they weren't even mentioned. So don't worry, most likely no trustee will want your pets.

This is good news. We also have 3 pugs. When I was filling out the paperwork for our consultation I didn't know what to put, so I just put 3 pugs. We have two black and a fawn. They are such great dogs.