How can this happen?

[sheneversaidit]

I just dont understand how this can happen.

here

It is doing my head in trying to actually picture the steps to this happening.

Well, it sounds like her mother at least was still around. Obviously the dogs haven't been letting themselves in and out of the flat on their own...

It's not fundamentally different from any other parent neglecting their child, just that this one spent her time with the animals instead of alone.

but to that extent... I mean, did the dogs feed her as well?? Did the Mother do anything? How was the Mother living? I just think this is truly bizarre. I don't know how they would operate life like this. Its terribly sad.

I wonder if the girl had some kind of SN maybe autism and without support for the mother to deal with her, the child simply didn't develop beyond a certain stage.

Well, I guess the dogs may have brought her food - pack animals do that for mums & babies back at the "den", though obviously that wouldn't have worked back when she was a baby. Though as lljkk suggests, maybe the mother was coping ok at the baby stage and only stopped coping when the girl got a bit older and maybe wasn't developing as she should.