Woman Wins 2 Year Dog Custody Battle

When Peggy Bunker broke up with her fiancé, Richard Higgs, in May 2007, she left their five-acre mansion in Bedminster, New Jersey with her boys: two West Highland terriers named Barkley and Willis. After accepting a new job, Bunker moved the dogs with her to Denver that August, and was blindsided a month later when Higgs filed a lawsuit in New Jersey to get back the animals — valued at $1,800 each.

For Bunker, co-anchor of Fox's Good Day Colorado, it was the start of a two-year legal battle that cost her more than $25,000, not counting the expense of making 23 trips to New Jersey for court appearances and visitations every five weeks with her dogs. Higgs, 42, a Wall Street bank executive, and Bunker, 37, are among what the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) says are a growing number of couples battling over pet custody. "It was expensive," acknowledges Bunker, who turned down Higgs's offer of $100,000 to walk away from the dogs, "but I would not have been able to live with myself if I had just turned and walked away. It was not an option."

On Nov. 20, 2009, following an eight-day trial in October, a New Jersey judge ordered the dogs returned to Bunker. Higgs, who wasn't in court for the verdict, refused to comment on the case. Now Bunker and her husband of 18 months, CJ Hummel, 38, an investment banker who flew with their pets to Denver the next day, are re-bonding with Barkley, 6, and Willis, 5. "We were driving home from the airport with the dogs in the backseat," says Bunker, "and CJ said, 'Look we're a family.' It made me cry. We are a family."

Source: peoplepets.com