Really? Yep! A couple hoping to adopt, was denied the opportunity to become foster parents. The couple in their 40's were hoping to foster or adopt a child so their ten-year-old son would have a sibling. But, get this, The couple in the UK was denied the ability to become foster parents because they didn't eat meat - they are vegetarians.

Here we are discussing important weighty issues like gay adoption, single family adoption, children languishing in foster care, and now this. I can picture the headline now :

No child for meatless home - Couple told to slaughter cow before being able to parent addicted abused child.

Ok, maybe I”m dramatizing a bit, but really, does this make sense?

Although they readily agreed to allow their foster child to eat meat outside the home, at school and at restaurants, this couple was denied their application to become foster and/or foster adopt parents because of their personal choice around diet.

Mrs. Saunders, perspective foster mom said this:

".......By allowing them to eat meat at school and when they go to friends and if we went out to a restaurant, we don't mind paying for them to have meat. I really didn't understand that it was as big an issue as they were making it."

They are appealing the decision.

At first I didn’t really believe this was true. But then England can be eccentric. (I’m allowed to say that as I’m English as well as US and lived there for many years.) Then I found this link: Can Vegetarians Adopt Children? about a couple right here in the USA who had their foster children taken away because they fed them an organic vegetarian diet!

Wow. Now I’ve been a vegetarian on and off for many years. I never even considered it a big issue. My husband eats meat, our daughter eats meat. Although we don’t do it very often, we have taken foster kids to the Mc place to enjoy a hamburger and playground.

So anyone out there vegetarians? What is your take on this?