Mother Nature Network posted an article on feral children on Facebook today. Feral children are kids who were raised by animals. While other people were reacting with fascination, the only thing I could feel was horror.
Now, some of the kids featured were from some seriously disgusting circumstances. 3 instances involved parents locking their child up with other animals at their home. How sad is it that a family's kennel of dogs was more nurturing than the child's parents?
What I find equally horrifying, is what happened to some of the feral children who had lived in the wild. When found, those kids were taken away, to be "rehabilitated." The way I see it, though, is that those kids were essentially kidnapped.
Just imagine what those kids must have felt. The animals who raised them were their family, just as if those kids had been adopted by another human family. Then one day, strange creatures come along and snatch them from their parents, siblings, etc.. Could you imagine what it would be like to be captured by beings who were completely different from all you had ever known, who didn't look, communicate or behave in any way you understood? Wouldn't you feel terrified and miserable, never knowing if you would see your family ever again? Those kids were then made to live in a way that was completely alien to them, and must have felt so alone.
From their eyes, it must have been torture. No one spoke their language, and they were forced to try to learn a new one. Considering that human languages and animal communication work on completely different levels, is it any wonder that those kids couldn't figure it out? Animal communication involves not just sound, but body posture and subtle movements. How would those kids ever understand the relationship between those languages?
In the end, some of those feral children have been locked into mental institutions, considered mentally unsound. They failed to stop being what they are, and so, because they are human, they must be broken. Yet, science has already determined that a child's personality is set in just a few short years. Plus, the older we get, the harder it is to learn new things, like languages.
So, what kindness are we doing to those feral children? Any wildlife rescuer will tell you that you can't release a wild animal who was raised by humans, and expect it to survive. Why should it be any different for humans? It's the same problem in both situations. That person or animal has spent their formative years learning to be one thing. Putting them into another environment isn't going to change that.
I think in most cases, it would be better to leave those kids to live the rest of their lives in the world they've been adopted to. Of course their are exceptions. The child who's mother locked him in a room with pet birds, who was raised and treated like a bird, needs human help. The little girl who was only age three when found living with dogs has a chance of re-adapting to human society. A child raised by wolves until found at the age of 8, however, is in their soul a wolf.
I completely agree.~
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