Feral children oxana malaya today

When a neighbor found eight-year-old Oxana Malaya in the woods one day outside her home in Ukraine, she was shocked by what she saw. 

A little girl, living among wild dogs, who walked on all fours and barked just like the rest of the pack.

This little girl wasn’t acting. She had been raised by these dogs since the age of three. 

She was the “dog girl.” This was a tragic case of childhood neglect. And a window into the relationship between nature and nurture in human development.

How Oxana Became a “Human Pet”

Oxana Malaya’s parents were alcoholics who paid almost no attention to their youngest daughter.

Feral children oxana malaya today episode

One night, they left the tiny Oxana outside in the bitter cold. As Oxana later explained in an interview, “Mum had too many kids, we didn’t have enough beds.”

Faced with a chilly night, Oxana did the only thing she probably could have done to survive – she crawled over to her dog, Naima, and moved into her den.

Soon other stray dogs joined them.

They eventually beca