A Manhattan judge has made a ruling likely to make any dog howl, deciding that canines shouldn’t have rights — because they can’t breed with humans.

State Civil Judge Arthur Engoron’s decision, released Monday, finds that Stevie, a 7-year-old Greenwich Village rescue mutt, should be considered “property” as her two owners battle for custody.

“Evolutionary psychologists would say that membership in the same gene pool confers rights; but much as humans love Stevie, they cannot procreate with her,” he wrote.

It was a legal about-face from March, when Engoron ruled that the basenji mix’s “best interests” should be considered in the case.

In that ruling, Engoron was applying the “best interests” standard established by the state’s first matrimonial pet-custody case, which involved two women fighting over their dachshund, Joey, in 2013.

But in July, another state judge said that since pets can’t “tell us what they want” they should be considered “property” by law — and Engoron agreed.

In the latest ruling, Engoron mused that “conferring rights on animals would be a slippery slope . . . If dogs were determined to have rights, why not cats, raccoons, squirrels, fish, ants, cockroaches?”

He even fended off potential rebukes by “vociferous animal-rights activists” by disclosing his “prior ownership of Humphrey the basset hound and Wabber the tabby cat, which were beloved beyond all reason.”

The case involves Doug Gellenbeck, 45, and Michael Whitton, 46, a Greenwich Village couple who split after 13 years together.

They are fighting over who will get to keep Stevie when they complete the court-ordered sale of their jointly owned co-op.

Gellenbeck sued Whitton last year over the apartment and Stevie.

Gellenbeck, a design consultant at Bergdorf Goodman, says he gave Stevie to Whitton as a birthday gift in 2010. But Whitton, who works in marketing, insists he adopted Stevie from a rescue service.

Gellenbeck’s lawyer did not return a message.

Engoron scheduled a hearing for Dec. 10 to determine not who is Stevie’s best friend — but who is her legal owner.