# What happens to therapy dogs and service animals when their person dies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-therapy-dogs-and-service-animals-when-their-person-dies/775751>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 28, 2016, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-therapy-dogs-and-service-animals-when-their-person-dies/775751 "2016-12-28T02:12:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-therapy-dogs-and-service-animals-when-their-person-dies/775751/21 "2017-01-01T21:02:12Z")

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> [@Lasciel](#):
>
> Ahh, gotcha. Is the executor legally required to execute the will as its stated. I misunderstood. Yeah that part I don’t know. You’d think it would make sense for them to be bound to it, but legal stuff rarely matches up with common sense. I have the feeling if they decided not to, the only recourse would be for the survivors to sue them for the lapse in civil court if they cared enough.
> 
> Course, unfortunately that’s how it is for a lot of contractual obligations.

What the lawyer told me, was that I could put anything in my will that I wanted about the dog, but the executor was not obligated to follow it for a pet. I mean you can put anything in a will, but there are some things that the law says are a ‘no go’. This is why lawyers are useful for complex wills. For example, I’ve read that in some states it’s almost impossible to disinherit minor children and spouses. So you can disinherit your 10 year old son, but the state says ‘nope, you cant do that, it puts a burden on the state and we’re not having that.’

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