Three year old girl raised by her dogs

A three year old girl was found by social workers in Russia, being cared for in her family home by her pet dogs. The girl’s mother, an alcoholic, had neglected the girl, leaving her to fend for herself. Luckily her dogs adopted her into their ‘pack’.

When social workers entered the home, they found the three year old girl crawling around on all fours, with the dogs, and gnawing on bones like a dog. She also used the dogs for warmth, and barely knows how to speak, answering just yes and no to questions. For most of her communication she growls, just like a dog.

The girl, Medina, is from Ufa in Russia. Children in her neighbourhood shunned her, leaving her with just her dogs for company.

According to police, the girl’s twenty three year old mother, Anna, ignored her daughter and even forced her to eat from the floor while she ate at the table.

A social worker commented:

The child is angelic but she has been deprived of love and care, except from the dogs.

When her mother was angry she used to run away, but no child played with her in the playground.

She hardly knew a single word, and fought with everyone.

So dogs became her best friends. She played with them, and slept with them when it was cold in winter.

Darren Jamieson