Pets are left in the doghouse after owners separate

But now the family mastiff is increasingly the victim when the master and the mistress declare a mismatch.

Pet rescue and care homes say they are seeing more and more cases of animals being caught between warring couples.

Across Edinburgh and the Lothians alone it is estimated that hundreds of pets, dogs in particular, are handed in every year either to be looked after while disputes are resolved, or given up altogether.

Lucy Taylor, secretary of the Capital's Dog Aid Trust, said that around 30 per cent of the 70 to 100 dogs the group re-homes each year were handed in as a result of divorces or break-ups.

She said: "This does happen a lot and it's normally because of people moving after a breakdown in a relationship or a divorce.

"Just yesterday we had a young chap in touch who had broken up with his girlfriend and he was at work for 14 hours a day, and couldn't look after (his pet] anymore.

"It's probably the third most common reason we receive dogs."

Sharon Comrie, deputy head of uniform services at the Scottish SPCA, said that it has to prioritise sick and injured pets over those left in the doghouse over a split.

She said: "All of our animal rescue and rehoming centres take in animals that are unwanted because their owners have divorced or separated and no longer have room in their life for a pet. However, our priority is to the sick and injured or abandoned animals that desperately need our help.

"We advise all would-be owners to think very carefully about whether they can provide an animal a loving home for life."

David Ewing, manager of the Edinburgh Cat and Dog Home, said: "We deal with about 20 dogs a year here that are caught up in divorces.

"Some of the cases we deal with are very bitter, some are very sad, but some are very humorous as well."

One family law firm, Gibson Kerr, is advising its clients to consider entering celebrity-style prenuptial agreements to avoid bitter feuds.

Fiona Rasmusen, partner at the Edinburgh-based firm, said: "If they have an expensive or valued pet, then a prenuptial agreement is an option."

'People don't realise that a dog is for life'

MONIKA Klamecka, 22, from near Krakow in Poland, had to find a new home for her one-year-old dog Taz, after she and her partner split up in January.

The business student and assistant pub manager, who lives in Gorgie, held on to the boxer-Staffie until two weeks ago, when she found a home for him in Liverpool.

She said: "It was just too much to look after him because of how much I have to work.

"We didn't want him to go to a rescue home so we found him a home in Liverpool, and I'm happy about that. I suppose it was unavoidable, but I think more dogs are given up because people don't realise that a dog is for life when they buy them, rather than separations."