A seven-year-old boy chirps on the hands of rescuers when they were trying to liberate him from an aviary cage filled with birds.

Until this rescue, he had not been taken out of the cage, never. His mother, who despised her unintentional birth to her son, hid him in the cage and treated as if he was her abandoned, heartless pet. Since the day of prison, he was fed as a bird, raised by them, and thus, behaved like a bird. When he was rescued, he violently moved his arms high up and down, making futile attempts to fly.

He is not the only victim. Many cases of feral children, who are abandoned to spend childhood with wild animals without human contact, appear each year. From 1920 in India to today, about 80 children were discovered with animal parents.

Once they are discovered, they are sent to learn about values and customs of the real world and their identities as human beings, not as untamed animals.

Despite these efforts, these feral children unusually fail to live a long lifespan. They often die within ten years of their rescue. The causes vary from high stress level to suicide attempts.

And, they always attempt to return to their previously horrendous living conditions.

On the other hand, John Ssebunya the “Monkey Boy,” who was raised by monkeys in the Ugandan jungles after running away from his father’s murdering scene with his mother at age of four, now speaks in a human language and even sings in an African choir.

Although fascinating, sadly, humans raised by wild animals is no longer a legend like the one of Romulus and Remus descended from the fourth century BC. It is now the true and bitter reality where parents desert their children with complete ignorance.