Thread: Weird News
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Old 05-25-2008, 02:54 PM   #42
Sundae
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 24,185
This is from The Sun. Bear in mind I can't find the story anywhere else so it is likely untrue or grossly misleading.

Quote:
Vanya Yudin, aged six, may have Mowgli Syndrome, according to local social workers.
In the family flat in Volgograd in southern Russia are two parakeets along with several aquariums and a rabbit.
Social worker Galina Volskaya claims he has used the birds as role models.
"When you start talking to him, he chirps," she said.
When he gets agitated, he flaps his arms like wings, it is claimed.

But the child's 31-year-old mother Svetlana Yudina insisted: "He does have speech problems but there is nothing else wrong with him."

A single mum, she claims his problems may derive from the boy's father walking out on her and the sudden loss of both her parents.
But she insists she is the victim of a vendetta by the social services.
She says she is "shocked" by claims that her child is a 'bird boy', saying he is lively and communicative.

She sought help with Vanya from the local authority after her husband walked out on her and both her parents died.
"It all started when I turned for help to our social services department asking for rent discounts," she said.
"They refused, saying all they could do is send Vanya for fostering.
"They came to look at our living conditions.
"They found fault with me having no curtains on the windows. But we live alone, who would fix the curtain rails?
"After that they said Vanya was that slim because I didn't feed him. But this is such nonsense."

She hit back: "If they want to take children away from anyone, they should remove them from alcoholics.
"All we need is help, getting him into the right school with help for his speech."

Officials say she failed to place the child in a kindergarten and this may have contributed to his lack of speech.

She accepted her child needs a speech therapist but she has not been able to find one despite taking a job to earn extra money by delivering newspapers.

"I don't want to register his disability," she said.
"I do not want my child to live for the rest of his life labelled as being disabled.
"We don't need the allowance I would get for this."

She says she has now started taking him to a local help centre, and she hopes her battle with the social services will soon be over.

Mowgli Syndrome is the name given to children developing animal behaviour often after being neglected by their own parents.

Russia has seen a number of cases of feral children who have lived with animals - usually dogs - after being abandoned by their parents.

There were contradictory reports last night as to whether the child had been taken into care.
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