5 year old Russian girl abandoned by father, raised by animals

**Manfred von Assenhammer** · May 27th, 2009, 11:07 PM

Neglected Russian girl, 5, ‘raised’ by cats, dogs

MOSCOW - A 5-year-old Russian girl has been has placed in state custody after being found alone in an apartment filled with cats and dogs and imitating the animals' behavior.

Police in the Transbaikal region of Siberia said Wednesday that the girl was kept shut up with the animals in a filthy apartment in the regional capital of Chita, where she lived with relatives, including her father and grandparents.

Larisa Popova, head of the children's affairs unit at the local police precinct, told state-run Rossiya television that the girl had developed feral characteristics.

"The child lived in unsanitary conditions. There was a horrible stench," Popova said. "There were many animals — both dogs and cats. In all probability, the girl lived with and was raised by these animals."

Police said the girl understands Russian but rarely speaks and they are gathering evidence to support neglect charges.

Nina Yemelyanova, head of the reception department at a children's home where the girl has been placed, said the child appears to mimic the behavior of animals.

"Today, when I left the room, she jumped up to the door and started to bark," Yemelyanova told Rossiya television. "And she does not know how to behave at the table — when she eats, the tries to put the spoon aside and lap from the dish."

Regional police said water, heat and gas to the apartment had long since been shut off for nonpayment.

The ITAR-Tass news agency cited the girl's mother as saying the child's father had taken her away without her permission when she was 2 1/2 years old. But the father claimed his mother-in-law had asked him to take the child because the mother was not taking proper care of her, the news agency quoted regional police spokesman Yegor Markov as saying.

Markov said the father could be charged with neglect of a minor, which carries a prison sentence of up to three years.

the father's story seems awfully weak and suspect here, doesn't it? he took his daughter away from her mother because she's an unfit parent, and then leaves her alone for who knows how long in a disgusting apartment with the pets as babysitters? that's some bad fucking judgement, even for an abusive neglectful fucktard. if this had been during the winter, it probably would have been deadly.

three years doesn't sound like much, though it does help that it's highly likely to be worse than a 13 year sentence here. sure it would be great if he could just disappear to a classic USSR-style gulag for about 20 years like back in the day, but at least he's already in Siberia.

i've always found stories about so-called "feral children" very fascinating and tragic. however, this story was missing some important information about what was going on in this situation to cause this, which makes it hard to know what actually happened here. if this girl does have language skills as reported, i'm not sure if this can be classified as one of those cases. don't get me wrong; whatever the full story is, it's horrific. regardless of anything else this incident was an extreme case of neglect, and if she was in that bad of shape it clearly goes back far before this.

i hope more information comes out about this story soon from other sources, as i consider the Russian wire services about as reliable as the Weekly World News(an opinion shared with reporters sans frontiers). yet i doubt the complete details will be coming out, unless anyone knows how to get Siberian CPS reports on the black market, that is.

**DarkPrincess** · May 27th, 2009, 11:13 PM

This seems to be a pretty common occurrence over there. Reminds me of the woman who had dogs raising her daughter.

**petrina** · May 28th, 2009, 01:08 AM

im just wondering.... if she were clean and warm and fed, would it be ok to have animals raise a kid? i mean, i guess we can raise kids any way we want, assuming they are not harmed. haha. idk. just overthinking a little.

**Kitty** · May 28th, 2009, 06:57 AM

I wonder if the mother ever visited in those 3 years..

I hope the little girl was found early enough that she can be rehabilitated, from what I understand about feral children is that after about 6 years old they loose the ability to form/learn speech. It's early and I can't remember all the technicals-but I hope the best for her.

**malq** · May 28th, 2009, 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by Kitty

I hope the little girl was found early enough that she can be rehabilitated, from what I understand about feral children is that after about 6 years old they loose the ability to form/learn speech.

Interesting Kitty

Here is a link with cool stuff about FC. The most famous one in india, the wolf children are in there.
http://www.feralchildren.com/en/index.php

**Manfred von Assenhammer** · May 28th, 2009, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by Kitty

I wonder if the mother ever visited in those 3 years..

I hope the little girl was found early enough that she can be rehabilitated, from what I understand about feral children is that after about 6 years old they loose the ability to form/learn speech. It's early and I can't remember all the technicals-but I hope the best for her.

yes, this is my understanding as well - i can't remember all the details from psychology classes either, but there is a critical period for speech in childhood that is about that age. iirc, the feral children who were only discovered once they were teenagers were unable to develop enough verbal skills to functionally or meaningfully communicate. this was the case with Genie, the girl who had been locked in a closet(?) by her parents until she was saved from them at 13 or so. that's the story many people are familiar with - and if your psych class was like mine you probably heard about her.

this is why i found the lack of details in this story so frustrating. this girl is so young that hopefully she will be able to be helped, but there are many factors. the details on her language skills if any aren't clear, or if she has other special needs that complicate things even further. because there are so few cases(thankfully) of children raised in extreme isolation, there are many things that are not understood about how and what can be done to rehabilitate them. children in state custody there have a hard life, but with her extreme situation being known maybe it will almost help get her the special care and treatment she needs.

i've also been wondering about the mother... obviously the father is a shitbag no matter what. however, it's not really clear if he did just take her or if they may both be unfit parents, which would be very sad. if the situation is as she says and she's a good mom, i hope her daughter is back with her soon. this girl will need a lot of help, and having a family that cares would make a real difference. unfortunately, that might not be the case here. i will be keeping an eye out for more on this, so possibly some of this will come out.

btw, anyone interested in feral children should have a look at this site if they haven't already:
http://www.feralchildren.com/en/index.php

i found it a while ago and there's some interesting stuff on there, although it was the lack of information on some of the children mentioned that makes me doubtful there will be much more in this girl's story.

**Manfred von Assenhammer** · May 28th, 2009, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by malq

Interesting Kitty

Here is a link with cool stuff about FC. The most famous one in india, the wolf children are in there.
http://www.feralchildren.com/en/index.php

damn it malq, you posted that while i was typing up my post! but yeah, everyone definitely check out that site, since malq agrees with my suggestion...or something like that.

**Marv** · May 28th, 2009, 04:34 PM

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...ected-her.html

This is the first picture of Natasha Mikhailova, the five year old 'Mowgli' girl who was raised by dogs after her parents neglected her.

Under-developed: Natasha Mikhailova is actually five but looks more like a two-year-old

She speaks no words, laps up her food and drink with her tongue, and walks on all fours.

Though living in filthy conditions in the same home as her father Viktor Lozhkin, 27, and grandparents in the Siberian city of Chita, child experts say she was treated as one of the dogs and cats.

Lozhkin, and the girl's mother Yana Mikhailova, 25, who has had no contact with her for two years, were both arrested on suspicion of neglecting her.

'They never let her out, we didn't know she existed,' said one neighbour.

'They have three really vicious and angry ones which they took for walks - but we never saw this child.' (eh?? the neighbour is talking about her as if she is a dog!)

The girl, physically underdeveloped and more like a two-year-old, was not registered with local doctors or hospitals.

Natasha is now under close observation in a local social rehabilitation centre.

Specialists are shocked at the way she jumps on people and plays dog games yet they say she is not mentally retarded, but starved of love and attention from humans.

'When I went out of the room, she jumped at the door and started barking, not just mewing or something, but barking,' said Nina Yemelchugova, chief of the centre.

Poor little kid, I hope she can be re-habilitated and live a normal and happy life.

**Kitty** · May 28th, 2009, 04:51 PM

Thanks guys, I have been to that site... it's fascinating.

BTW, Genie was left tied to a potty chair for the majority of her life... I caught a special on ferals the other day on Nat Geo, and I believe that they said she was still alive at a residential facility.

**Kitty** · May 28th, 2009, 04:52 PM

Manny's got it here http://www.dreamindemon.com/forums/s...511#post236511 too

**Marv** · May 28th, 2009, 05:47 PM

Oops, sorry Ass! Didn't realise you already had this here in Foreign.

(thanks, whoever moved mine

)

**Manfred von Assenhammer** · May 28th, 2009, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by ohmarvellousme!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...ected-her.html

Poor little kid, I hope she can be re-habilitated and live a normal and happy life.

thanks for posting this other story about it, this answered some of the questions that the other story brought up. what an awful situation...now it sounds like a "textbook" feral child case. like i said before i'm hoping that because she's still a young child that will give her more of a chance to be rehabilitated.

**smallwonder4** · May 30th, 2009, 08:57 AM

I kinda hope they keep animals in her life as part of the rehabilitation process... since it's all she knows.

Did the neighbor say they walked some of the aggressive dogs but they never saw the child? She was being raised by aggressive dogs but not treated as kindly and taken out?? I'll bet Dad hoped they'd kill her. I don't believe he took her to protect her. That's just fucking absurd! Bring her here. I'll raise her with my dog pack AND human affection.

**jo_momma_82** · May 30th, 2009, 11:59 AM

Stories like this one make me wonder about a little girl I saw at times growing up...

I lived in an apartment complex with my mom when I was about 8 y/o and there was this odd lady that lived next door to us and I remember my mom always telling me to stay away from her b/c she thought that this woman was either crazy or on drugs. Occasionally I would see this woman outside with her daughter (who was about 2-4 y/o) and the little girl would only bark at people... after reading stories about feral & severely neglected children, I sometimes wonder what kind of a life that little girl had.