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A young boy has been taken into care in the Philippines after images of him being dragged on a leash by his mother provoked a furious backlash on social media.

The boy’s mother turned herself in to police after the disturbing images were shared online and prompted severe criticism on Facebook and elsewhere.

The pictures show a young boy crouching naked over a bowl of what seems to be dog food. The images then caught the attention of child abuse campaigner Lurleen Hilliard.

1. The young boy has a leash around his neck thanks to his mother, who has apparently filled a bowl with dog food for him to eat from.

Lurleen, 46, is the founder of Dublin, Ireland, based Nolonger Victims, an organization which educates people on the various forms of abuse and aims to help protect and rescue victims. She said:

I was trawling through Facebook on Monday when I came across the images she had posted on her page.

Initially I was infuriated and my blood was literally at boiling point. This cannot be tolerated.

If we tolerate this level of abuse and parents think they can post these images online in order to boost their page or to make themselves look good then all we’re doing is saying that we support, and we’re enabling, child abuse.

What made me more concerned was if this is what she’s happy to post on Facebook then what is she doing behind the scenes that nobody knows about? This is what she’s willing to show us, what isn’t she willing to show us?

1. A child abuse campaigner saw the images and got in touch with law enforcement in the U.S., who passed the information on to their Filipino counterparts.

Lurleen contacted law enforcement officials in the U.S., who in turn reached out to their counterparts in the Philippines.

On Tuesday morning, Lurleen was told that the Filipino mother had been taken into care. She said:

Apparently, the father works for a government agency so whether they’re going to try and pull some strings to allow her off with a slap on the wrist, but I’m determined that that’s not going to happen.

I’m going to keep on at it and keep pressure on them for her to be charged, because it’s not acceptable.

We have to, as a society, disable child abuse and the way we can do that is by ensuring people like this, who to me is just an excuse of a mother, she’s an insult to women, is held accountable, is tracked down, her child is removed and the child is protected and is able to grow up with the innocence of a child and without having to live with child abuse.

At Nolonger Victims I usually say a simple thing: speak out, reach out and get out. If people speak out about abuse then we can reach out to them and in time we can help to get them out, and this is exactly what this story has done.

1. The mother was arrested and her child taken into care after police were alerted to these pictures.

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Source: Viral Spell