Posted on 05/04/2006 4:39:12 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
A six-month-old Medford baby was bitten by a rat up to 200 times after it escaped from its cage in the boy's room.
Police say the parents, 21-year-old Robert Horsfall and 19-year-old Maegan McCleary, found the rodent near a creek.
Police say they took the infant to the emergency room at Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford. Detectives say the parents apparently believed the rat was a domestic breed.
They brought it home and kept it in a cage in the room where they slept with the baby.
The next morning they found that the rat had escaped and bitten the boy. He had from 100 to 200 bites all over his body, including his face. He is being treated for infected wounds.
A second child at the home was placed in foster care.
The parents are being held in the Jackson County Jail on criminal mistreatment allegations.
Had to read it twice to determine if it was the rat or the boy that had escaped the cage and I'm still not sure which.
Keep your kids away from DemocRATs.
This is just wierd. Their side of the argument basically boils down to "We weren't neglectful, we're just stupid!"
There's nothing wrong with having a pet rat (I've had three over the years, and they're unbelievably bright animals), but any idiot knows that you don't just bring home any rat you catch in the wild. The thing could have anything from rabies to the bubonic plague!
They didn't know the child had been bitten 200 times until the NEXT MORNING? You could assume the baby was screaming while he was being bitten and nobody even checked on him. Disgusting slime ball parents!!
A normal baby might cry during the night and parents would wake up. A baby with 200 painful bites would be screaming...and parents would wake up? Right?
No word on when, or if, rat-bite-baby will be removed from custody of his "parents".
The parents are being held in the Jackson County Jail on criminal mistreatment stupidity allegations.
That was my first thought.
Wasn't the baby screaming?
feed 'em to the hogs.
I was thinking the same thing.
A baby would not just lie there silently while being bitten repeatedly. I'd say the kid would be screaming from the first bite.
Something is just not right in this story. Besides the obvious idiocy of the parents in bringing home a wild rat for a pet.
What kind of "parents" are these? The kind who can't be bothered with marriage.
They just ignored the baby as it screamed in pain?
Strap the parents down in a cell with 100 hungry rats for a just punishment.
Parents must be meth tweakers
DING, DING, DING. We have a winner!
That was my first thought when I read the article. If not meth, they had to be on something. There is no way anyone could be that stupid and not be on drugs. In the long run, the rat probably saved the baby's life.
A six-month old wanted to keep the rat as a pet?? Give me a break. The only thing in common with this couple and babies is that they can make them... not much beyond that.
Perhaps a supportive church can help, but let's face it -- these people are off to a very bad start.
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