Feral Russian Girl Raised By Cats And Dogs In Siberia: Police

In a real-life "Jungle Book" situation, a 5-year-old Russian girl has been rescued from an un-heated Siberian flat, where she has lived her entire life in the company of feral cats and dogs without ever really adopting a vocabulary, police told the Ria-Novosti news agency. According to the Telegraph, the girl, known as 'Natasha', lived in the Siberian town of Chita with egregiously neglectful parents and grandparents who essentially raised her as a pet. From Telegraph:

Like the other pets, she lapped at her food from a bowl on the floor and had never learned how to use cutlery.

Welfare officers, who were led to the flat by concerned neighbours, have placed Natasha in an orphanage. Although malnourished and small for her age, she appeared to be relatively healthy considering her ordeal, a police spokesman was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

However, Natasha's father was not home when the police arrived and his whereabouts are unknown. Nevertheless, police are filing criminal charges against the family, according to AFP.

President Medvedev spoke out against child abuse earlier this year, citing 760,000 children who live in "socially hazardous conditions", AFP reports.

The website FeralChildren.com has additional information on the phenomenon whereby children raised in the company of wild animals adopt their mannerisms. It also provides a short list of feral child hoaxes over the past century, as such incidents are usually the stuff of folklore. Natasha's story, corroborated by a number of news sources, appears to be the real thing.

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Comments

[Okieborn]

PHOTOS PLEASE !!!

[FZliveson]

I have a friend from the Ukraine and he says there are more children, worse off today than there were after the end of WWII. He says orphans are in despicable care places. I hope it is not correct. A group of men I belong to, put on a community service project and sent $4500 in funds and canned goods to one orphanage in the former Soviet bloc.

[PotatoesVsPotatos]

I love Huffington Post. I get my daily news here first before any other blogs and organizations. But please, move on into 21st Century attitude for Russia away from the Cold World brainwash. It is time. Try to educate your readers, isn't that what you are trying to do mainly anyway?

When finally will we have an opportunity to read something interesting about Russia and not just a stereotypical hype stories that take one loony case from the country with the size of US and give it to their readers? When was the last time you read a good article about Russian culture - music, literature? Or daily life of it's citizens - not a picture of a drunk guy in Moscow as we have them here in US as well - but something actually that can expand our understanding of this country that we were in a Cold War for so many years, thanks to our government (not our people).

Enough is enough.

That applies to some other defacto "evil sates" as well, by the way.
I don't expect much from TV, but I do expect a lot from you HP!

I hope you don't mind that!

[MIKEBC]

I notice in the winter, WY. +MT.+ND.+SD. is our version of siberia.

[goodneighbor420]

you got that right!!!!!

[earthbelowus]

The title would have led one to believe that the girl was only raised by the animals not treated like an animal by her parents.

[earthbelowus]

i have seen a documentary on several accounts of this and all took place in this region, what gives?

If one doesn't believe this is possible they have never had a dog or cat, they truly become a part of your family with their own quirky personalities :)

[wordvarc]

This is a child abuse victim... not 'Mowgli.'

[TXFF5000]

I wonder what the real "parents" are like.

[opine2u]

Hopefully Russia goes out of their way to treat her to a full and rewarding life, and bring her out of Siberia into a family home with warm and wonderful people to raise her and take care of her. The President of Russia should see to it she is given a good chance at leading as normal a life as is possible.

[hypersloth]

Bring her out of Siberia? I think you have a wrong picture of Siberia. What you probably meant was give her a good home by bringing her out of her present situation.
Siberia is just like any other region, just very cold.
Famous for the gulags maybe but there are a lot of cities in Siberia and lots of people live normal lives there.
The cities are no different than other cities anywhere else.
I know quite a few great people from all over Siberia .
I guess everyone has the wrong image of Siberia.
Check out Lake Baikal and surrounding areas, very beautiful . In the summer temperatures reach over 80.

[305Rider]

WTF!?!

[swyftdahoe]

Took my words.

[ramal]

Just another example that no child should be brought into the world who is not wanted and cannot be properly cared for.

[jham710]

You got that right!

http://www.thehamandlegsshow.com

[FZliveson]

ramal...then you'll have to take the fun out of the rubbing of the bumps and the dents together. Ain't happening any time on this side of the DNA arrangement. What's your plan?

[munki]

So sad... if your parents treat you like that...

No word can express the ordeal other than - glad she is ok now...

[FZliveson]

Look---a talking monkey. I wonder if it was raised, immorally, by smelly, evil, violent humans.

[pokemon]

So she was raised by parents who treated her as a pet, not by the dogs and cats her parents kept as pets. I like huffington buut lets write these titles a bit closer to the truth.. this is not the Weekly World News.

[HyperInfluential]

I have to agree. The truth is shocking enough! This girl doesn't speak and identifies with the animals, considering herself one of them and not one of the humans, because that's how her parents raised her. That's a different story than a pack of dogs and cats living together in an abandoned flat, and bringing back food for this helpless human infant.

I mean that woulda been an amazing story, because why would dogs and cats form a pack together in the first place? Cats and raccoons I've seen before, but dogs mostly only form packs with other dogs when they go feral. It would just have been flabbergasting. But the truth is they weren't truly feral, they were all being fed by crazy people. So that's more of a depths-of-­human-depr­avity story than an amazing-nature story.

[pattyrenee]

Remember the movie "NELL" with Jody Foster. Same girl almost.

[ClearingtheAir2010]

Wait a minute, Russia has welfare?

[valerief]

They probably have single payer health care, too. The US is the backward nation.

[wdw505]

yes of course, that is what they don't want you to notice