I love my kids and my pets please help me!

My kids were removed from my house for a list of stupid reasons, but now I'm being told that I may have to get rid of my animals to get the kids back. I raise and breed Ball Pythons. I have 14 and they are all about Medium sized. They are in a rack system and are properly maintained and cared for. Also I have 4 Large rats that I was using as breeders and feeding the babies to my snakes till my daughter said how against it she is, so we stopped and out of 60 rats we kept 4 and found homes for the rest. The 4 I kept are our pets and we love them. Each of our kids owns one of the rats but we keep them all together and we take care of all the animals as a family. My three kids love the snakes and help with the care and with educating others about them. Does anyone know of anything I can do or anyone I can contact to keep from having to lose all my pets. I will do what it takes to get my kids back, but I don't want them blaming themselves for the pets having to go. Can anyone help me?

I don't think that you are going to find the information that you need on here. This seems to be a matter that a family attorney, who is privy to the details of your specific case, would be your best source of information. Lawyers can navigate extremely complicated legal precedents pertaining to child custody and pets. There also should be local crisis centers in your area that can put you in touch with social workers that have experience with this.

Considering there has never been a documented case of a ball python inflicting serious or mortal injury to a child, a good lawyer should be able to help you keep your animals.

^this, but it seems hard to believe that keeping Ball Pythons was they reason your kids were removed from the home.

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Originally Posted by jclaiborne

^this, but it seems hard to believe that keeping Ball Pythons was they reason your kids were removed from the home.

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Definitely. I think addressing and remediating the core custody issue is your first challenge. Once that is set, you can focus more time on the snake issue. Having non-traditional pets is always an added obstacle in these types of issues. Likely there are educational resources through USARK that can aid you in convincing the courts that bps are not posing a danger to kids. Data and statistics are your best friend.

Obviously, I have no idea what Lionne's personal situation is apart from her post.
That said, CPS (Child Protective Services) has gotten out WAY out of hand in the United States.

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Originally Posted by distaff

Obviously, I have no idea what Lionne's personal situation is apart from her post.
That said, CPS (Child Protective Services) has gotten out WAY out of hand in the United States.

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Totally agree. The intrusion of the state into family matters is unbelievable.

Thank you for your posts. We live in a house that is 60 years old and has been a rental unit for 30 years. Listed problems were broken railing, stained hard wood floor from animals (Landlady told them it was from past renters not us). Medicine bottles on the floor in our daughter's room (she uses them to hold beads she learned this from pinterest), they scared my dog so he urinated on the floor and my handicapped fiance was the only one there with them and couldn't take him outside.

So I am assuming that this is all after divorce and original custody proceedings took place? What is your custody situation now? Do you have visitation?

no custody was ever set. I raised them with my fiance for the past 10 years, the animals were simply mentioned on the report and everyone in the court were like ewe snakes! I have fixed all areas that they complained about and I got rid of 95% of the rats. Now someone is saying that even though cps haven't come out and said it and the cabinet(social) worker has denied it. It still looks like they are waiting for us to get rid of the animals.

my ex has temporary custody and I get visits every Sat. for 6 hours outside of my home.

I see. Im sorry to hear that snakes are complicating things. I really think that you need a lawyer to help you navigate this ordeal.

So CPS removing the kids from the home happened a while ago if you've already been to court.

Why do you not have an attorney yet? Because you needed one yesterday, not only to deal with this issue but also to get custody, support, and visitation orders in place.

And if you need to sell the snakes to pay the attorney then you do it. You can get more snakes later.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

So CPS removing the kids from the home happened a while ago if you've already been to court.

Why do you not have an attorney yet? Because you needed one yesterday, not only to deal with this issue but also to get custody, support, and visitation orders in place.

And if you need to sell the snakes to pay the attorney then you do it. You can get more snakes later.

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Absolutely. Your kids need you a million times more than you need the snakes. Maybe try to relocate them to a friend or family member's house, or just sell altogether if need be. There are always going to be snakes around in the future. This time point is pivotal to establish custody rights, don't let the opportunity slip by. You 100% need an attorney, otherwise you will never get the deal that you want.

You could try to rehome them temporarily with a friend or family member until you get custody back. You could also explain the situation to the nearest reptile rescue; they'll often help out in situations like that.

As long as BPs are legal in your area, any decent attorney should be able to deal with that. There is no documentation of them inflicting any sort of serious injury to a child, and they are sold in almost all chain petstores as starter pets (clearly aimed at children whose parents will take care of the animal).

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Originally Posted by DVirginiana

You could try to rehome them temporarily with a friend or family member until you get custody back. You could also explain the situation to the nearest reptile rescue; they'll often help out in situations like that.

As long as BPs are legal in your area, any decent attorney should be able to deal with that. There is no documentation of them inflicting any sort of serious injury to a child, and they are sold in almost all chain petstores as starter pets (clearly aimed at children whose parents will take care of the animal).

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Totally. Just because an animal is non-traditional, or scary to some, doesn't mean that there is legal precedent to deny access of a child to a home that contains that animal. Dogs kill and injure by far the most children in the US every year.

There is more to this story than just the animals.
If its truthfully this bad, the animals need to be rehomed because I would bet its more the care of the animals than anything?

I'm sorry to hear about your problems but I have to agree with the last few posts that you need to do what is right for your family and get you home and life in order. Pets are replaceable kids are not. I would sell the snakes and the rats and get the racks either dismantled and stored or just sell them too. Then fix what you need to and get your family back. I'm assuming because you posted this plea for help that you're open to suggestions and will see the writing on the wall. My house was robbed on April 9th, while my wife and 2 boys were home, and it traumatized her to the point of not feeling safe in the house, so I listed the house, sold it, moved almost all of our personal belongings into a storage unit and we are currently living in a 2br apartment waiting for our new house to be built. As part of this I had to re-home my 2 viv's with 5 Poison Dart Frogs, found new owners for my Crested Geckos, and found a temporary place for my snakes. All this was done in less than 2 months, in fact the majority of it was done in the first 3 weeks after the robbery.