Planning for Your Beloved Animal Companions

One of the most important aspects of estate planning is preparing for your animal companions' future—for the time when you are no longer there to care for them yourself. Our companion animals are an integral part of our lives, and we know that they depend on us completely. So it is crucial to make careful preparations now for their future care. There are important steps that you can incorporate into your estate planning to ensure the long-term well-being of your animals and also make their transition to a life without you as stress-free as possible for them.

Please contact PETA for an excellent, complimentary planning packet that can help guide you as you prepare for the future of your animal companions.

Some of the most important planning steps include the following:

1. Identifying one or more trusted people who can come into your home at a moment's notice to care for and comfort your animals until their long-term care is arranged. It is important for the person to be familiar with your animals and vice versa.

2. Selecting long-term guardian(s) for your animals now—someone you trust as well as someone capable of and willing to take complete responsibility for your animals. It is a good idea to name one or more back-ups if possible.

3. Files on each of your animals should be maintained and kept in your home. This will help in an emergency and can be used to find the best possible new homes for your animal(s) if that is what you desire. The files should include, at a minimum, names to contact in an emergency; your animals' names, years of birth, and genders; the name and location of your veterinarian; your animals' diets, feeding schedules, personalities, likes and dislikes; and a description of their daily routines. The files should be updated at least annually, and critical information should be carried in your wallet as well. (PETA’s planning packet contains forms for all this information.)

4. Consult with your attorney to complete your estate plans, including providing for the future of your animal companions through, for example, a provision in your will or through a "pet trust," which is now allowed in 39 states. These provisions are another area in which you can specify in detail how your animals should be cared for when you have passed on.

5. Put a "Please save our animals" sticker in a location that is visible from the outside of your house, such as a window or door, in case of an emergency. (This sticker is also included in PETA's planning packet.)