Emily Chan
For nearly five years, a young girl lived with a pack of dogs after she was abandoned by her neglectful parents.
During that time, she learned to mimic some of their behaviors. The girl in question, Oxana Malaya, was only three-years-old when she went to live with the dogs.
She had been desperate for warmth and shelter on a freezing cold night in the 1980s. Her parents struggled with alcoholism and had left her outside.
As a result, Oxana followed her dog Naida into her kennel and slept there. Later on, they were joined by more stray dogs and became a pack.
When Ukrainian authorities found her, they were shocked to discover her crawling around on all fours, eating food directly off the ground, cleaning herself with her tongue, and barking just like a dog.
Children like Oxana, who have been deprived of human contact from an early age, are often referred to as “feral children.”
Oxana Malaya was born on November 4, 1983, in Nova Blagovishchenka, Ukraine. She grew up in poverty, and her parents ignored her for much of her childhood.
According to the U.S. Sun, in a later interview with 60 Minutes, she said that her mom had too many kids and not enough beds for them all.
So, when she got locked out of the house overnight, her living space was relegated to the outdoors. Before long, she joined a group of local stray dogs, surviving on nothing but raw meat and other food scraps.
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