Pregnant Woman Charged After Two Toddlers Found Chained In Her Backyard

A mother of six has been charged with child abuse after two children under her watch were discovered chained in their own home. Neighbors helped the children get rescued when they called authorities reporting repeated cries of kids on their neighbor's backyard.

Treating Children Like Pets

According to Straits Times, authorities raided the house of 34-year-old Porucha Phillips in San Antonio, Texas, where they found a 2-year-old boy with a chain on his ankle and a 3-year-old girl bound to a door with a dog leash.

The toddlers were reportedly not Phillips children as authorities continue to look for their parents. Six other kids, aged 10 months to 13 years, were also found inside the house and believed to be all children of the female suspect.

Bexar Country Sheriff's Office spokesperson James Keith said the young boy was chained like he was a dog. "There was no slack in the chain. His pants were down. You could tell he'd been here for a while," he added.

Keith added that calling the situation of these kids as "disturbing" would be an understatement. He claimed that nobody in their right mind could do such to these young children.

Immediate Attention & Response

Fox News added that two of the rescued children were brought to the hospital for proper medical care while the six others were placed under a foster home. The pregnant Phillips, on the other hand, has been charged with two counts of injury to a child.The bond for her release was set at $75,000.

In a similar report, Daily Mail said Phillips claimed that she was not responsible for chaining the two kids in her yard. She said that their parents intentionally left them there.

Phillips also reportedly told authorities that she wanted to take the children to a nearby fire station. The mother said she had no means of taking care of them since she also had her own children to look after.