Mum keeps mentally ill son caged

There is no telling how cruel humans can be to each other. A story that has surfaced recently tells us of a mother, 74, who allegedly caged and shackled her mentally challenged son in a homemade cage in China.

A homemade prison

Mother Wang Muxiang had kept her own son Wu Yuanhong prisoner for more than a decade. Her son had reportedly beat a 13-year-old boy to death in the village while having an episode of ‘psychosis’ in 2001. However he was released a year later as he was inflicted with a mental condition.

After Wu’s release, his mother went in search for someone to create a makeshift cage to contain her son but the blacksmiths of her village were fearful that the mentally ill son might hunt them down and attack them if he escaped. Left without a choice, Wang had to weld the cage herself.

She said: “I wielded the cage while crying heavily. Although he suffers from mental illness and killed a person, he still is my son. Thinking I am making a cage to lock him in, my heart was broken.”

RELATED: Child rides with family dog in a cage

Handling a mentally challenged child

There are other ways of preventing her son from attacking people instead of holding him in a cage within her own home in rural Jianxi Province, China.

Perhaps it is poverty that is keeping her from seeking professional help. Perhaps she isn’t educated enough to know how to deal with her son or the situation. There are mental institutions for people afflicted with psychosis but sometimes the conditions of mental institutions may not be much better as we see from the video below.

Inhumane conditions of Serbian mental institutions

Other cases of caged children

Keeping caged children is apparently not an unheard of case. In fact there have been quite a few cases reported. However these caged children were not mentally challenged like the case above, they were victims of cruel parents who don’t deserve the wonderful gift of children in the first place.

Caged children in filth

In Nebraska, parents were arrested for keeping their kids imprisoned in cages. The poor children were found in a totally squalid environment. The Nebraska police said that two of the kids were “housed” in a wire animal kennel.

Police Lt. Rich Hoaglund said in a statement: “Upon arrival and subsequent entrance into the residence, the officers found the residence highly unsanitary and unsafe for children. There was trash, dirty clothing, food and animal feces and urine throughout the residence.”

He added that a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old were discovered in a metal kennel that was secured by a wire tie. The parents tried to make the environment more “habitable” by placing a mattress in the space.

Family members caged two children (baby cots transformed into cages)

Caged children fed dog food

A married couple from rural Yukon, Oklahoma was arrested for multiple child abuse charges. They were exerting cruelty on their adopted children. Why adopt if you’re going to victimize your kids? Guess what? The couple was actually being paid $ 1,500 in adoption assistance by the state.

The extent of the abuse is beyond shocking. This monstrous mother, Sonja Kluth, 57, had kept three of their adopted children locked up in cages; tortured them with red hot irons, beat them unconscious and used pliers on their genitals while the husband watched. So, feeding the kids dog food does not come as such a surprise. For full details of the case read the related story below:

RELATED: Caged children, victims of inhumane abuse

Tell someone…

If you know or suspect anyone is a victim of abuse, please step up and speak out. Domestic violence or abuse victims may not have the courage to help themselves, but you can tell someone [www.tellsomeone.com.sg/].

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Here are some numbers you can call:

Samaritans of Singapore (SOS): 1800-2214444
Singapore Association for Mental Health: 1800-2837019
Sage Counseling Centre: 1800-5555555
Care Corner Mandarin Counseling: 1800-3535800

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