10-Year-Old 'Dog Boy' Found Living in Cave
Updated: Tue, Jun 19 9:32 AM EDT
SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - A 10-year-old boy who had been
abandoned by his parents survived for two years in a cave with a
pack of stray dogs who scavenged for food with him and may
even have suckled him, child care workers say.
The boy, thrown out of his home by abusive parents at the age of
five, ran with 15 strays in the southern port town of Talcahuano
after he escaped from a care center two years ago.
"He lived in a cave with dogs and roamed the streets for food
with them. He would eat out of garbage cans and find leftovers,"
Delia Delgatto, head of Chile's National Child-care Service, told
Reuters Monday.
She said earlier reports by the police that the boy had been
brought up by dogs since he was a baby had turned out to be off
the mark. "He wasn't reared by the dogs as such, he lived with
them in a cave," she said.
The boy, who has not been named, threw himself into the wintry
cold waters of the southern Pacific Ocean on Saturday to escape
from police who had been alerted to his case by the municipality.
"A police officer dived into the water and saved him," a
spokesman for the police said. He said the dogs looked after the
boy: "They were like his family."
The child, dubbed "Dog Boy" by the Chilean media, spent a day
in a hospital in the city of Concepcion and was then taken to a
child care center.
"He's showing signs of depression, is aggressive and is not
speaking much although he does know how to speak," Delgatto
said. "He was dressed almost in rags, was dirty and had filthy
hair."
The police spokesman said the boy had drunk milk from the
breasts of one of the female dogs, but Delgatto said she did not
know whether he had been suckled or not. "We can't tell whether
he was or wasn't," she said.
Photographs taken on Monday showed the boy, dark skinned
with black hair, holding a child's crayon drawing of a pack of
dogs. Two of his front teeth were broken and he had what
appeared to be a scar on his left cheek.