Santiago - A Chilean boy abandoned as a five-year-old survived for two years living in a cave in the care of a pack of stray dogs who scavenged for food for him, police said yesterday.
The boy lived by scavenging food from garbage cans with the group of 15 strays in the southern port town of Talcahuano and sucking milk from the breast of one of the dogs, a spokesman for the carabinero police force said.
"They were like his family," the spokesman said. "A female dog nurtured him," he said. "He showed clear signs of malnutrition."
The boy, who has not been named, jumped into the Pacific Ocean on Saturday to escape from police who had been alerted to his case by the municipality.
"A police officer dived into the water and saved him," the spokesman said. He said the boy was now in the care of a state-run children's welfare society.
The Chilean media said the child, who they are calling "dog boy", was suffering from hypothermia.