Authorities say a 13-year-old girl was forced to wear a shock collar around her dog’s neck.
Neighbor Karen Wilek said it was a Tuesday afternoon, March 1, when she heard repeated knocks on her door.
“I open the door and she hands me this collar. And I say, “Is your dog untied?” She said, “No, they shocked me! They shocked me!” And she lifted her neck, and I saw two traces of the collar, “said Vilek, adding that the collar vibrates in her hand.
Wilk says she brought the girl to her home in the 100th block of Harvard Avenue in Stratford.
She tried to comfort a 13-year-old girl while her husband called an ambulance.
“I was horrified,” Vilek said. “My husband and I can’t sleep for days. Do you know what we can do for this poor girl?”
Police say the girl was taken to Jefferson Hospital in Stratford for treatment, and the Department of Child Protection and Permanent Care took her out of the house.
Authorities arrested Kelly, Rebecca, and Rachel Menig the next day on charges of aggravated assault, child abuse, and negligence.
It is believed that the three forced the girl to put on a shock collar and deprived her of the necessary amount of food and clothing.
While three women denied violence during a detective interview, police say another resident of Mennig’s house told them that a dog collar was imposed on the girl as punishment when she was “bad.”
Vilek says she suspected the house was an unpleasant environment, but never imagined it.
“In the winter, you can hear them shouting and fighting all the time through the windows,” Vilek said.
The three suspects are still locked up in the Camden County Penitentiary.
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