
The story of the family whose ten “unschooled” children were seized by Kentucky Child Protective Services (CPS) has cats. This is the most heated, divided situation I’ve kept up with in a long time. I have a ton of information and links here, which you may wish to read a bit of before or after this article.
Their Facebook: Blessed Little Homestead page tells of the battle that Joe and Nicole Naugler are going through since the children were seized last week from their Breckinridge home.
Viewpoint of the family:
- The reason the children were taken was because they live “off the grid,” meaning no electricity, running water or adequate septic system, and the children were being “unschooled” or homeschooled
- Nicole claims the Sheriff bruised her during arrest when her two eldest children were seized. Nicole is 5 months pregnant with her 11th child.
- The family states CPS has visited their property and could find nothing wrong with the way the children are being raised
- Abuse accusations toward Joe are false
- Nicole states a warrant wasn’t produced until after her arrest (CPS can issue an emergency order, and apparently that’s what they did in this case)
Viewpoint of Child Protective Services:
- The family was residing in a tent-like structure
- The mother gave birth in that tent
- No running water or septic
- The children were not enrolled in school or vaccinated against disease (which isn’t illegal, provided the children ARE being home schooled)
- The father threatened a neighbor with a gun
Viewpoint of the public who are taking sides:
- Why is it the business of the public as to how these children are raised
- The family is acting on public sympathy to get money (a GoFundMe has raised THOUSANDS in only a few days)
- When viewing the Facebook posts going back several years, the children have been injured or sick and outside medical care wasn’t sought because they’re into natural medicine. Nicole did state if something serious comes up the children would be taken to a doctor. This didn’t happen when there was a case of food poisoning awhile back.
- The public has noticed in the photos that the children are dirty and the property is filthy. Even a pond on their property has likely been contaminated by feces running into it.
- Most people into the off-the-grid lifestyle try to improve their property. It’s being said the Naugler family has not.
Which brings us to their cats
On their Facebook page, the family speaks of having at least two cats. They also have several dogs, goats and other assorted animals. It’s also alleged the ground is nothing but a mixture of mud and feces, littered with broken glass. The family is said to eat off of dirty plates and containers. There’s no mention as to how the cats and dogs are fed. Dogs are most likely fed scraps, as dogs have lived on scraps since man and dog formed a partnership.
But what about their cats? Do they get any kind of balanced diet? Are they up to date on their rabies vaccine, since the cats are more than likely exposed to wild animals who could be infected? If the cats become ill, are they taken to a licensed veterinarian for treatment? For checkups? Or are the cats totally or near totally dependent on their own existence, and does that existence include being chased by young children?
In conclusion
It may seen strange worrying about the cats, especially when there are now 10, and soon to be 11 children involved. The Naugler family went to court on Monday, and the children are in at least four different foster homes in four different counties. The family says their property passed inspection. If this is true, it would seem the children would be allowed back home.
I’ve looked around the internet at the number of “shares” this story has on social media. It’s really not that many, considering the severity of the accusations being tossed around on both sides. My Examiner article only received 25 “likes.” Even major news media didn’t see many shares or likes.
A lot of people believe a story involving any kind of animal neglect or cruelty, or even an animal being in the story will take priority over a person. I believe it. I’ll be keeping an eye on this article, because I believe it will draw in more readers and be shared more because cats and dogs are involved. Have we really become a society that thinks more of cats and dogs than of people?
You comments on this are welcome. And be sure to comment which side you’re on concerning the Naughton family versus Child Protective Services.
Thanks, Jenny, for commenting and visiting this website. You have provided some nice detail.
They won’t take anything from the government. Mrs. Naugler is on record saying that they won’t be “whores of the State” in that way. It wouldn’t be so bad if they would just do something. They aren’t even unschooling the kids. What they call unschooling is living mostly in the woods, sleeping in dirt, and foraging for food. Unschooling is a twee name for designing a personalized curriculum based on the individual child’s interests. Even if they’re all interested in farming, I note that, as Mrs. Naugler herself posted, they watched two of their dogs kill most of the chickens that one child had been “passionately” interested in getting and just kind of shrugged. The dogs are still there.