Oklahoma Woman Accused of Starving Children, Feeding Them Feces

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JAY, Okla.—An Oklahoma mother has been charged with child neglect, accused of starving her children and feeding them dog feces.

The Tulsa World reports that 34-year-old Mary Elizabeth Moore was charged in Delaware County court this month.

The children, aged 5 and 3, are severely malnourished and have been placed on a special diet with nasal feeding tubes. They are in state custody.

“The two children were hospitalized at Saint Francis Hospital intensive care unit in Tulsa, where the older child weighed 26 pounds and the younger sibling weighed 18 pounds, the affidavit states,” according to Murder is Murder.

“If somebody had not reported this, the hospital records and the child abuse expert that examined them in Tulsa stated that they would probably be dead,” said Delaware County Undersheriff Tracy Shaw, NBC12 reported.

An affidavit says the older child told Department of Human Services workers that she ate dog feces. The arresting officer noted the child had parasitic pinworms.

“She stated Moore cooked the animal waste for her, and that she by no means eats greens,” based on the affidavit.

“This is definitely an extreme case of child neglect, one of the worst that I’ve seen,” Shaw said.

The girl also told investigators that her mother’s boyfriend “throws bottles” at her younger sibling.

The affidavit says Moore denied starving her children and feeding them dog feces. Her court-appointed attorney, Lee Griffin, didn’t immediately return a phone call Saturday seeking comment.

How to Report Suspected Child Maltreatment

If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, contact your local child protective services office or law enforcement agency so officials can investigate and assess the situation. Most states have a number to call to report abuse or neglect.

To find out where to call, consult the State Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Numbers website.

The Childhelp organization can also provide crisis assistance and other counseling and referral services. Contact them at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453).

“Every year more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies involving more than 6.6 million children (a referral can include multiple children),” according to Childhelp.

Child Abuse

An estimated 674,000 children were determined to be victims of maltreatment in 2017, according to the Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families.

Of the victims, about 75 percent were neglected, 18 percent were physically abused, and 9 percent were sexually abused.

Nationwide, an estimated 1,720 children died from abuse and neglect, a decline from the 1,750 children who died from the same in the previous year.

Officials said there was an increase in the number of referrals to Child Protective Services for an investigation but that there was a decline in the number of maltreatment cases, a phenomenon they will be probing.

Of the abused children, 25 percent were younger than 1 year old. Another 52 percent were between 1 year old and 5 years old.

The children who were killed by abuse or neglect were also overwhelmingly young, with about half of the fatalities being younger than 1 year old. Boys made up 58 percent of the deaths.

Perpetrators of abuse or neglect are most often in the 25 to 34 age range. More than four-fifths (83.4 percent) of the perpetrators were between 18 and 44 years old. Perpetrators were more likely to be female.