Someone who "forced" me to get rid of what I consider a member of my family and the light of my life is obviously someone who has no respect for me or my happiness. I'd say there's more wrong there than "just over a dog." The kids have no choice of course, but the mother has a voice, a marriage should be equal and decisions made together. If it came to needing a divorce in order to keep the dog, there is something vastly wrong with that marriage anyway. Just my feeling. I feel badly for the dog, and the children involved, and even the mother, if she really is that "ruled" by her husband's whims.