3 accused of letting rats chew toes off Ohio baby

[dv8grl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090722/ap_on_re_us/us_rat_bites;_ylt=ApTiMc3c4VoqJZqJuaU0Rwys0NUE;_yl u=X3oDMTFpZ21nOXA1BHBvcwMyNgRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21v c3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDM2FjY3VzZWRvZmxl

WAVERLY, Ohio – Three people have been accused of letting rats bite a 6-week-old girl and chew off her toes at their cluttered Ohio mobile home.

Pike County prosecutor Rob Junk says the baby's toes on one foot were gone when sheriff's deputies went to the home Sunday after receiving an anonymous tip.

The baby is in fair condition at a Columbus hospital.

A married couple and the 18-year-old boyfriend of the baby's mother are charged with felony child endangering. They were in court for an initial hearing Tuesday. They're jailed pending a plea hearing in two weeks.

The prosecutor says they all lived in the mobile home west of Piketon, a village noted for its old uranium enrichment plant.

He says the baby's mother is a juvenile. He won't identify her or say if she'll be charged.

[YankeeMary]

Good word. How terrible. How could anyone not only allow this to happen but how could they stand to hear that poor poor baby cry. You know that it had to hurt beyond belief. I hope they get in a severe amout of trouble.

[PrincessArky]

oh I can't even imagine what this baby went through :(

They should just take them all out back (yeah including mom) and shoot them in the head and be done with it

[shadowcats]

SHE must be sixteen or under , that should tell you what kind of crappy family shes got , and her boy friend is 18 and they live under the same roof,,,,,,,, sounds to me like a lot more going on there,,,,,,,, it horrible what that child will have to endure growing up if they let this happen and its only and infant ,,,,,, they ought to slap them in jail and let the population beat the crap out of them all,,,,,,,,,,, sad situation any way you look at it. :slap:slap:nono:nono:slapping:slapping:mad:

[gmyers]

Poor baby. Shoot if I was the adults I wouldn't want to live with rats. You'd think they'd get rid of them for their sake if not for the babies.

[jasmine]

wasn't there just another rat story on here a week ago or something?

How in the hell can a rat chew off a baby's toes and not take your own baby in for medical help? Or did they? I suppose if they did, the hospital would have turned them in. That's just insane. Do people not have brains, compassion, anything left these days?

[galeane29]

A 3-month-old Westwego girl covered in rat bites was found dead in her home Thursday and authorities are trying to determine if the bites played a role in her death.

Natalie Hill was found shortly after 7:30 a.m. in her crib by paramedics responding to an emergency call.

When paramedics and police officers arrived, they found the child's father standing in front of the house in the 700 block of Central Avenue, yelling that his daughter was dead inside, said Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch Sr.

Munch said officers found the child with what appeared to be hundreds of bite marks on her body and severe damage to her nose and right leg. The officers determined that rats or other small rodents had done the damage, from prints left behind on the bloody sheets in the crib.

The Jefferson Parish coroner's office has not determined the baby's cause of death. Munch said it is possible the child may have been dead before the rats attacked her because the girl's parents did not report hearing her scream. The adults were in the front room of the home before the baby was found, he said.

Munch said several of his officers were deeply troubled by what they saw. "This was not something you see every day," said Munch, who could not recall a similar case in decades of law enforcement.

Neighbors said rodents have been a problem in the area for some time and that rats have gotten into several homes.

Annette Stevens, who lives next door to the child's family, said the girl's parents always took good care of her and her siblings. She said the family was cordial and seemed happy.

"They never neglected the children, they were always clean and well-fed," Stevens said. However, she said rodents were often seen running through the streets, and she had seen Natalie's father outside laying rat traps in the past. Other neighbors said the city of Westwego provides rat poison to them to deal with rodents in the street. http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2...found_dea.html (http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/rat_bites_cover_baby_found_dea.html)