An eight-year-old boy was found being raised by dogs and only able to communicate by barking in Thailand this week, local authorities said.
The child, who has not been named, was discovered at a ‘drug-infested’ run-down shack during a welfare check on Monday, according to local media.
Authorities found him living with his mother, 46, and brother, 23, in Lap Lae District, Uttaradit Province. Both were reported to have tested positive for drugs.
They say the family had been shunned by neighbours and the child never enrolled at school, leaving him with ‘no one’, except the six dogs they shared the house with.
‘He didn’t speak, he just barked. It was pitiful to see,’ said Paveena Hongsakul, president of the activist foundation that led the rescue effort with local police.
The boy was said to have only been to school once, despite his mother receiving a stipend of around 400 baht (£9) for his study, according to Khaosod English.
‘His mother hasn’t allowed him to go to school since he received a subsidy for free education,’ Ms Hongsakul said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
‘After getting the money, she simply kept him at home.’
Authorities raided a house in a clearing in the woods on Monday and found the family
The boy was taken into care and he will be able to go to school, supported by the activist group
Neighbours were said to have forbidden their children from playing with the young boy due to the family’s behaviour.
His mother was known for allegedly begging for food and money at local temples.
She was also charged with drug consumption after Monday’s raid, Khaosod reports.
‘The house is in a red zone for drugs,’ one teacher explained. ‘The boy had no one, just the dogs to play with.’
Activists notified police and worked with multiple agencies to lead the raid on the one-storey shack on June 30 after local headteacher Sophon Siha-ampai raised the alarm, The Thaiger reports.
Images from the scene showed authorities standing around a small family in a wooded area with several dogs on site.
Police conducted urine tests on both the mother and older brother, who allegedly tested positive for drug use.
Social workers intervened to place the boy in a children’s home, local media reports.
Ms Hongsakul, of the Foundation for Children and Women, will work with authorities to ensure the child receives continuous education, and her organisation will monitor his progress.
‘The boy will be given a chance at a good life. We’ll follow up with him to make sure he gets everything he needs,’ she said.
Local media reports the child had attended pre-school but only attended primary school once, when he reached Grade One age (around 6-7).
There is not a huge corpus of information on ‘feral children’, or the impact of being raised without other humans.
For many centuries, stories of young children being raised by animals or abandoned to live alone were left to folklore – like the story of Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome.
Images from the scene showed authorities standing around a small family in a wooded area with several dogs on site
Ms Hongsakul, of the Foundation for Children and Women, will work with authorities to ensure the child receives continuous education, and her organisation will monitor his progress.
In recent decades, psychologists have done more to collect data to better understand how rearing practices affect the developing mind.
One such victim, Oxana Malaya, was found abandoned by her alcoholic parents, living in a kennel with dogs in 1991.
She was found exhibiting behaviours that resembled that of the Black Russian Terriers far more than it did typical children.
She walked on all fours and barked.
By adulthood, Oxana did still learn how to speak fluently, find productive work and begin a new life, despite some impairment to her abilities.
