Politickin' With John Brown: A Brief History Of Feral Children

The King of Da Burbz takes a look back some crazy cases of kids being raised by animals.

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In his weekly column, rapper John Brown—the self-proclaimed "King Of Da Burbz"—will be offering his insight into politics and current events to the Complex readers. Check out "Politickin With John Brown" every Thursday.

This week, Siberian authorities discovered an abandoned 5-year-old girl who had been apparently raised by dogs and cats. Word. Dating back to ancient times, there have been hundreds of accounts of adolescents raised by animals, also known as "feral children". Most tales are thankfully fictitious, but a handful have been corroborated with substantial evidence. Despite the obvious horrors of this tragic form of neglect, feral children offer rare insight into human behavior development. Here's a look at some of these verified cases:

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5. Marie Angélique Memmie LeBlanc, France, 1731
• Known as the Wild Child of Champagne, Marie was an American Indian who survived ten years in the woods of Champagne before she was rescued by villagers at the age of 19. Her journey began in Nebraska, which was a French colony at that time. After a battle between the French and her tribe, she was allegedly sold to a French-Canadian woman who then took her to Marseilles, France. A subsequent plague epidemic left her confined in quarantine until she escaped into the woods. When found, she had unusually large thumbs from digging holes, ate raw meat and could only communicate with a wild shriek. She eventually recovered, learned to read and write and died wealthy in 1775.

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4. Victor D'Aveyron, France, 1800
• A 12-year-old boy, later named Victor, emerged from the woods after spending his childhood in the forest near the city of Toulouse. He could not speak, had scratches all over his body and was conditioned to withstand freezing temperatures. Despite attempts by local scientists to rehabilitate Victor, he remained essentially mute until his death in 1828.

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3. John Ssebunya, Uganda, 1991
• The subject of BBC's documentary "Living Proof", John fled to the jungle at the age of 4 after witnessing his father murder his mother. Three years later, he was found covered in body hair caused from malnutrition and had scars on his knees from crawling. John recovered and became heavily involved with music, eventually touring with the Pearl of Africa Children's Choir.

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2. Ivan Mishukov, Russia, 1998
• When 4-year-old Ivan ran away from home, he didn't wind up in the wilderness like other feral children, but rather with a pack of wild dogs in the urban streets of Moscow. After he was unwillingly captured by authorities, Ivan re-entered civil life and regained his speaking abilities.

1. Oxana Malaya, Ukraine, 1991
• In what is one of the few videos of a feral child, Oaxana is shown behaving like the dogs that raised her for 8 years after she was abandoned by her alcoholic parents. She gives an interview at the end.

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