This was the first time I had heard of a custody battle involving a vegan diet. I have read numerous cases on various other custody issues, but this was a first for me.
Jeff and Gayle Nelson-Folkerson married and had quintuplets. They subsequently divorced and Jeff is suing for custody citing the primary reason as the children’s vegan lifestyle. The quint’s father states he should have custody based on the imposition of a strict vegan diet by their mother, Gayle.
Florida, my home state, and coincidently the state in which this custody battle has brewed, encourages shared parental responsibility. Florida also focuses on the best interest of the child.
I could find no information on the web that indicated the children were suffering from abuse or malnourishment.
To view more information on the article reviewed and utilized for this post, please visit The St. Petersburg Times.
Nobody will know what the children really want until the children grow up and marry move away from this mess, and hopefully open their mouths. I am pretty sure that abuse and neglect is not the case here. I am also pretty sure that it will boil down to who is ‘more dangerous’ than the other spouse. That is a cruel argument in court. Really, it should be ‘who was their primary caregiver all this time before this mess began”. If mommy used to brush their hair every morning, that is the way it should continue. I have a lot more to say about this subject here http://autismcustodybattles.wordpress.com, although in my case it’s a custody battle involving autism.