Siberian child 'raised by dogs'

Source: BBC News

Russian officials have taken a five-year-old Siberian girl into care, saying that she had apparently been "brought up" by cats and dogs.

The girl, who is unable to speak, was discovered living in a squalid flat in the Siberian city of Chita.

Police said she had never been allowed outside and had adopted the behaviour of the animals she lived with.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8070814.stm

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I hear of one or two of these a year; they're pretty high up on my "horrified fascination" list. It's sad that it's almost impossible for a child to completely recover from this kind of, er, upbringing.

would be better off living amongst the dogs and cats who raised them. We 'civilized' human beings think it is sad, but it is more likely that the children would be much happier if left alone. Civilization is way overrated.

Animals came to her rescue when her human parents failed her. Animals don't seem to judge and they are born with nurturing that many human parent seem to have a shortage of these days.

there are probably dozens of kids mauled to death by less-than-nurturing animals, so it's kind of a toss-up.

Better known as prison.

But I am hoping for too much, perhaps.....

this kind of romanticizing of animal behavior is completely wrong and ends up motivating a lot of misguided attitudes and policies towards animals. animals are not necessarily nurturing or possessing some naturally enhanced mothering instinct. try breeding mice for a while like i do for my work and you might change your mind. many many many female mice are absolutely terrible mothers, often completely neglecting their litters, and sometimes they are even infanticidal and cannibalistic even when they have ad libitum access to food and water.

And in this case, this dog lover credits the cats.
Fascinating is an appropriate word.
Dogs are thoughtful, emotional creatures and have more reasoning capabilities than given credit. They are toally social and feed off the company that keeps them. I call them creatures and not animals--a term better fit for us humans.
Horrible story though.

Just because she grew up wiith the dogs and cats doesn't mean they "raised" her in any altruistic, better-than-people" way (and believe me, I love me some dogs and cats; I'm writing from under a pile of them now). As pack animals I expect the dogs accepted her, the cats tolerated her,and as a child obviously severely neglected by her mother, she got what she could get and identified with the only family she had.

She won't ever "get over" this, though. Humans learn to be human from other humans at the beginning of life. I've heard of some amazing work being done, so maybe, but this level of early neglect has profound effects on intelligence, language acquisition, emotional regulation and self-and-other identity.

Adore your children, people.

I've heard of a few children in these sorts of situations who recovered and are either mostly or wholly "normal" now, but they'd all gotten into that state after they were socialized enough to get language.

Also, hee at the mental image of a couple of arms reaching out of a pile of dogs and cats to type.

given how Palin can see Russia from her porch.

Or am I missing something, can't tell from the story if she was living with parents who left her alone all day/night with dogs/cats, or what

At least that is what I'm thinking since it says the police have the mother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljVd6XS-J0s

I think it's more a matter of the kid emulating the behavior of the animals, as opposed to being "raised" by them.

Awesome name and icon! :yourock:

Make mine Marvel!

:fistbump:

Unless you were referring to the mutant, which is still cool. ;-)

Greek mythology was one of my first literary passions, that's probably why Proteus caught my eye in Uncanny X-Men.

:toast:

Greek and Norse myths books, as a kid?

I read those books to tatters.

You too?

;-)

It's one of those constant "weird happenings" in human history. I imagine as long as there are wild spaces or their urban counterparts, it will happen.

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