An eight-year-old boy was found barking like a dog after allegedly being left to live among them in a filthy hut in northern Thailand.
The child, who has not been named, was discovered at a 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. He was allegedly neglected and isolated from human interaction for years.
He then turned to his six pet dogs instead and began to mimic their behaviour by crawling on all fours and communicating in barks.
The child was discovered after Sophon Seehaamphai, director of the school the boy once attended, alerted that he had not returned for two years, The Thaiger reported.
The school informed child rights activisit, Paveena Hongsakul of the Foundation for Children and Women, who escalated the case to local police.
Social workers and police officers then visited the dilapidated house on June 30 and found the child living in squalid conditions.
His mother and brother were charged with drug consumption after testing positive for illegal substances. Authorities placed the boy under protective care at a local children’s home.
Paveena Hongsakul said the boy ‘didn’t speak, he just barked’, adding: ‘It was pitiful to see.’
The English-language Bangkok-based news website Khaosod English reported the boy never attended school but once visited with his mother to collect a government support grant that was meant to be spent on his education.
‘After getting the money, she simply kept him at home,’ Paveena said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
Neighbours claimed the mother regularly begged for money and food from local temples.
Families in the area reportedly prevented their children from interacting with the boy because of his mother’s behaviour.
Paveena has helped to coordinate the child’s education in the future and her foundation will continue to monitor his progress alongside the Social Development and Education ministries in Thailand.
She said: ‘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.’
The disturbing reports come after two children who were unable to speak were found living in the woods in Italy.
Rayan, six, and Noha, nine, were ‘filthy’ and wearing nappies when discovered by military officers near Lauriano, outside Turn, in April.
Their parents never registered the children with health officials or a school and claimed to be home-educating them, despite that they could not read of write.
The father, 54, told the Italian newspaper Corriere Torino that he and his wife, 38, brought the children to a remote farmhouse to ‘protect them’ from the coronavirus pandemic.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
