A Female Dog Breastfeeds an Abandoned Baby
“Female dog breastfeeds an abandoned baby in deplorable living conditions”. This is a story that brings us a mix of joy and shame, and the baby in question owes her survival, in part, to this animal.
It’s unusual to hear such dramatic stories of animals helping children and, in this case, it brings to mind the story of Romulus and Remus.
“Female dog breastfeeds an abandoned baby”: a terrifying discovery
At dawn one recent September day, a call alerted the authorities. It was from a woman, who claimed to have seen an abandoned baby in the parking lot of a mechanic’s workshop and feared for the child’s safety.
The events took place in a house near the city of Arica, in the north of Chile, where the police found a two-year-old baby, barefoot, half-naked, dirty, and with obvious signs of neglect.
However, what caused the most outrage is that, when the police arrived at the scene, the mother was there, but she was drunk. The baby was being looked after by a dog named Reina, who was also breastfeeding him.
Apparently, the minor’s mother suffers from alcoholism, and so the child was left to his own devices. Despite this, he didn’t have very severe signs of malnutrition, although he did have some parasites which are common in dogs. We can deduce that it wasn’t the first time that the minor had been fed by the dog.
According to the neighbors of the workshop, the mother had moved in alone with the child and they had been living there for about a month.
The baby was taken to the hospital, where it was found that he didn’t have malnutrition, although there were obvious signs of abandonment. Police were able to communicate with the boy’s father, who works in another city, who came to the hospital and stated his intention to stay with him.
The mother will be denounced for abandonment and faces not only the loss of custody of the minor, but also having to serve a sentence of up to five years in prison.
Reina’s heroism
Despite the drama of this story, which reflects exactly what humans are capable of, it’s also evident how much we have to learn from animals.
According to what was reported by the police, due to the continuous lack of care by the mother and the lack of resources to feed the child properly, we can presume that the baby could have died were it not for Reina breastfeeding her.
However, the curious thing about this case is that the dog wasn’t owned by the child’s mother, but by the neighbor who filed the complaint.
The complainant began to notice strange behavior in the dog, which disappeared for hours from her home and returned with obvious signs of exhaustion.
It was then that he decided to follow her and find out where she was hiding all that time, until she realized that the dog was nursing the baby at dawn.
Despite the courageous act of Reina, canine milk can affect humans, as it contains parasites that can lodge in the nervous system.
However, because the baby was exposed to short periods of lactation, it survived. Interestingly, dog milk contains a higher level of proteins than human milk, which kept it safe from starvation.
Fortunately for this little boy, he had a small four-legged angel, who was able to sympathize and alleviate the hunger he had, something that his own mother wasn’t able, or willing, to do.
Image courtesy of Freebird.