Dogs 'rescue' abandoned girl
2008-04-22 12:01
Patna - Hundreds of villagers
have flocked to a remote Indian village to see a baby girl who
was saved by stray dogs after she was abandoned in a mound of
mud by her mother, officials said on Tuesday.
Villagers in the eastern state of Bihar saved the newborn
on the weekend after they saw three dogs barking near a baby
covered with mud.
"The dogs removed the soil around and began to bark and the
baby started crying which drew attention of the local
villagers," Ram Narayan Sahani, a senior government official,
said on Tuesday from Bihar's Samastipur district.
"The girl is crying but is safe in the lap of a childless
couple who have adopted her."
Police said they were looking for the girl's mother, who
they think had left the girl to die.
Female foeticide, though illegal in India, is widespread as
boys are traditionally preferred to girls as breadwinners, and
families have to pay huge dowries to marry off their daughters.
The United Nations says an estimated 2 000 unborn girls are
illegally aborted every day in India.
- Reuters