Where there's a will, there's a way to care for pet 'heirs'
will to ensure 'unlimited' care for his pet dog Tito is likely to trigger a 'pawsome' trend — more and more pet parents making provisions for their furry companions on their posthumous wish lists.
While queries on these lines have been coming in for a while now, the trend is still at a nascent stage in India. Tata's move, say lawyers, will generate much more awareness about the issue, prompting more people to follow suit.
Pets are not recognised as people capable of holding property or inheriting the estate of another person — they are deemed to be personal property. Therefore, while many Indians see their pets as their children, Indian law still doesn't. Hence, the law doesn't allow for either leaving anything to pets as a bequest; or creating a trust with a pet as a beneficiary.
Law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas gets a lot of enquiries from people, mainly those who are single or elderly, about pets they are very attached to, said partner Shaishavi Kadakia.
«There are ways to address this, but these methods are not fool proof,» she said. «One can leave something to a caretaker to take care of the pet, as has been the case with Ratan Tata. Or, if the pet is going to a shelter, one can give money to that. The executor of the will can be asked to keep track, but human intervention is needed and there are no guarantees.»
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