Spain sees first gay divorce - paper

MADRID, June 26 (Reuters) A year after legalising gay marriage, Spain is now seeing its first gay divorce, complete with a custody fight over the couple's dogs, a newspaper reported today.

The claimant is asking for the right to stay in the marital home and to take custody of their pets. The suit added that his ex-partner would be granted visiting rights to see the animals, a report on the Web site of newspaper El Mundo said.

Council officials said divorce proceedings were private and would only confirm that the unnamed men were married in a Madrid suburb last October, three months after Spain became the fourth country to legalise same-sex marriages.

The claimant said in a petition that he had dedicated his life to the relationship, giving up a modelling career and abandoning his dog hairdressing business to follow his partner who had found work in France.

Some 1,300 gay weddings have now taken place in Spain.

The marriage legislation gives same-sex unions the same status as heterosexual ones, including inheritance rights and adoption, a plan that drew hundreds of thousands of Spaniards into streets to march both in favour and against.

Meanwhile a steep rise in divorces has increased yet further since a new divorce law was introduced last year. In 2005, 150,000 marriages were dissolved, compared to 83,000 in 1995.

REUTERS SHR KN1813