13-Year-Old Girl Forced To Wear Dog Collar Rescued After Begging Neighbors For Help

A 13-year-old girl showed up at her neighbor’s house in New Jersey and begged for help, leading to the arrest of three women owing to child abuse and neglect.

The neighbor, Karen Villec of Stratford Township, said she was inside her house when the teenager arrived at her doorstep screaming and crying. The girl was wearing an electric dog collar around her neck, Villec said as she recalled the March 1 incident while speaking to NBC10 Philadelphia.

“My doorbell’s ringing frantically and I open the door and [she] says, ‘Help me! Help me! Help me! They’re shocking me!’ And because I’m confused, I’m seeing the dog collar, she’s putting it in my hand,” Villec told the outlet. “And I said, ‘Is your dog lost?’ And she goes, ‘No! No! They’re shocking me!’ Shows the marks on her neck.”

Villec said she could still see the collar vibrating in her hand at the time.

The neighbor brought the child inside her house and comforted her while her husband called 911.

Responders arrived and took the child to the Jefferson Hospital in Stratford for treatment. Marks consistent with wearing the electric dog collar were found on the child’s neck.

The girl told investigators that three of her relatives started forcing her to wear the shock collar in October 2018, according to an affidavit from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.

The accused women, 42-year-old Kelly Mennig, 20-year-old Rachel Mennig and Rebecca Mennig (whose age was not mentioned in court papers), denied the allegations of abuse and neglect. However, a witness living in the same house told investigators about seeing the women punish the child with the shock collar whenever she was “bad.”

“I couldn’t fathom,” Villec told the outlet. “You know, who puts a dog collar, first of all, who puts it on their dog? Let alone on a child?”

The three women also allegedly deprived the child of adequate food and clothing.

The day after the child showed up at Villec’s front door, cops arrested the three accused women and charged them with aggravated assault, child abuse and neglect, ABC13 Houston reported.

New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P) had the child removed from the house after she was released from the hospital.

The three arrested women are scheduled to make their first court appearance Friday, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said, according to NJ.com.

Villec told NBC10 that she and her family are still affected by the incident.

“For days on end, still, can’t sleep,” she told the publication. “This is what we’re thinking about.”