Ukrainian woman says she was ‘raised’ by dogs, learned to bark, grow, walked on all fours

Kyiv, Ukraine

Oxana Malaya, a woman from Ukraine claims to have been raised by stray dogs after her parents left her out in the cold at the age of three. Over the years she adopted traits of her newfound fur family which included barking, growling, and walking on all fours. 

How did Malaya end up with stray dogs?

Growing up we were fascinated with stories like Tarzan and Mowgli, about children who were separated from their human habitat to live with wild animals, and while these stories typically have a happy ending, it is far from the reality of such cases seen over the years, like Oxana Malaya’s story. 

In an interview with 60 Minutes Australia, Malaya recalled how at the age of three she was locked outside in the cold by her alcoholic parents who “were too drunk to take care of her”. She eventually found her way to their pup Naida’s kennel where she lived till the age of nine. 

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“Mom had too many kids…we didn’t have enough beds,” Malaya, who turned 40 last November, told “60 Minutes Australia” speaking about her abusive childhood in the Ukrainian village of Nova Blahovishchenka. 

She was quickly welcomed as a part of the “pack” and eventually abandoned her ability to speak for barks and growls in the six years that she lived with her dog and other neighbourhood strays, reported the New York Post.

“I would talk to them, they would bark and I would repeat it,” said Malaya, adding that this was their “way of communication.”

Long journey

At the age of nine, Malaya was taken away from her pack after Ukrainian authorities were alerted about the child’s canine-like condition. However, attempts to take the nine-year-old were met with fierce resistance by the dogs, but they eventually managed to succeed. 

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By then, Malaya also licked herself clean, ate raw meat, rummaged through garbage bins for food, and walked on her hands and knees. Her condition was described as “catastrophic” for her development. 

“I don’t think she’s ever going to be able to read or do anything else that is going to be useful,” child psychologist Lyn Fry said about Malaya, as quoted by the New York Post. “If you haven’t got language by about 5, you’re probably not going to get language at all.”

In 2006, Malaya reunited with her family but it was not enough to heal her years of trauma. “When I feel lonely, I find myself doing anything I crawl on all fours. This is how lonely I feel,” she told 60 Minutes Australia. 

(With inputs from agencies)