\u201cThey are just like family, I don\u2019t have kids myself yet, but my dogs are my children.<\/p>\n
\u201cCruz and Gigi are like thick as thieves, I think cause Frenchies tend to stick together … Khloe is about 13 now, even though she doesn\u2019t act like it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Weitz said he had set up the will in a way that his dogs would go to live with nominated family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important to choose someone obviously that you trust, someone who you know the dogs get on really well with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weitz said he had also set money aside in his will for future food, vet bills and toys for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving it in place just makes me feel so much relief.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said there were many ways to include pets in wills and knew of someone who had organised for a \u201cright of personal residence\u201d for a person they knew to stay in their house until the time that their animals died.<\/p>\n
Public Trust chief executive Glenys Talivai said New Zealanders\u2019 planning for their pets was largely confined to their own lifetime.<\/p>\n
She said this showed up in how few people included their pets in their wills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we invest in their day-to-day wellbeing, most people still haven\u2019t made clear plans for what would happen to their pets when they die.<\/p>\n
\u201cNearly half of adult Kiwis don\u2019t have a will, leaving uncertainty not just for your loved ones, but for the animals that depend on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Research from 2025 shows 57% of adults in the Lower North Island (including Gisborne, Hawke\u2019s Bay, Taranaki and Manawat\u016b-Wanganui) had a will. <\/p>\n
This is slightly higher than the national average of around 50%.<\/p>\n
\u201cWills don\u2019t go unwritten because people don\u2019t care. For a lot of people, it\u2019s the opposite. We care deeply about our families, including pets, and that\u2019s why it gets put off. It can feel overwhelming.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people think they\u2019ll outlive their pets. But with around half of over-65 households owning a companion animal, it\u2019s something we shouldn\u2019t overlook.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said there was also a common assumption that a friend or family member would take on the pet when the owner dies. <\/p>\n
In New Zealand, pets are treated as property under the law, Talivai said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile they can\u2019t inherit directly, owners can nominate a trusted person to care for them and leave funds for their care in a will and set out how they\u2019d like them looked after through a statement of wishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven small details, like noting down their diet, medication, the treats they love, and daily routines, can make a big difference to an animal\u2019s wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey are just like family, I don\u2019t have kids myself yet, but my dogs are my children. \u201cCruz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[9490,36577,25225,64,63,99,378628,136828,186,580,378629,8278,58398,10873,187,34827,184,185,2473,13558,17844,319,1050,7776,5391],"class_list":["post-805421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-after","tag-are","tag-assets","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cared","tag-die","tag-finance","tag-for","tag-heirlooms","tag-how","tag-includes","tag-make","tag-money","tag-most","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-pets","tag-planning","tag-sure","tag-to","tag-will","tag-you","tag-your"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}