A boy has been rescued by authorities after spending two years in an animal shed. The victim, a 12-year-old boy in Nigeria, is starved for two years and lived off of goat feed while his cruel father and three step-mothers lived in comfort with his 17 siblings.
Starved and chained
On August 9, an unnamed source tipped off a team of human rights lawyers that led them to an animal shed, where they found the starving boy, barely able to stand, as reported by The DailyMail.
According to The Sun, the 12-year-old boy was tied to a wooden pillar and he had been reportedly living among chickens and goats for two years.
Hamza Attahiru Wala, the head of the rescue team, said that the boy's family, including his father and his three step-mothers, were found living in comfort inside the home.
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The boy, whose mother is said to have died two years ago, was immediately rushed to a hospital in Birnin Kebbi, where he is being looked after in intensive care due to malnutrition and dehydration.
The Public Relations Officer of the rescue team, DSP Nafi'u Abubakar, said that their men have arrested the father and the three step-mothers for allegedly chaining the boy for two years.
Abubakar said that their men arrested the suspects on August 9 in the Badariya area of Birnin Kebbi Local Government, and the boy is at Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital as the investigation is still ongoing to unravel the circumstances behind chaining the boy in animal stall for that time.
An elder brother of the boy told journalists that the victim suffered from epilepsy and the family chained him to the post to stop him from wandering around and going missing.
The brother said that the victim was only chained up in the morning, according to Sun Nigeria, insisting that he sold his house and car to fund the epilepsy treatment of his brother.
Similar case
In 2019, a circus promoter couple is accused of chaining, abusing and starving their 12-year-old son before he died in Indiana. The suspects, 33-year-old Luis Posso, and his wife, 26-year-old Dayan Median Flores, were charged with felony neglect of a child.
The charges were filed after the victim, Eduardo, died after he was rushed to a local hospital in Bloomington, according to a statement from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
Eduardo was Posso's son and Flores' stepson. Three other children in Posso and Flores's care, who are healthy, were placed with child protective services, according to NBC News.
Posso and Flores work as promoters for a circus that tours around the United States, and they were staying with all four children at a motel in Monroe County. After the death of Eduardo, detectives searched the motel room and that was where they found a box of restraints, including a dog collar with shocks.
Cellphone video showed Eduardo restrained in the bathtub, while the whole family, including the other children, came and went without acknowledging him. An image obtained by WTHR shows chains among the restrains used on the victim.
Posso and Flores denied starving the boy but admitted that they physically abused him because he acted up more than the other kids. Both are now in jail and are facing murder charges.
