Moscow, Jul 28 (IANS/RIA Novosti): Social workers in Russia's western Urals region have taken into their care a five-year-old girl who spent most of her life in a cowshed.

The girl's mother and stepfather, both farmers in Perm region, did not take her to kindergarten and forced her to stay with the farm animals to keep her off their hands, the Uralinform.ru website reported.

The girl had cigarette butts for toys.

She was also frequently locked in a cupboard when she got in the way of her alcoholic parents, the Moskovsky Komsomolets said. The father also frequently beat her up.

The girl cannot speak or eat with knife or fork. Instead, she grunts and drinks milk straight from the pot.

A case has been opened into the incident and the girl sent to a rehabilitation centre.

The girl is not the only neglected child in the area. Last winter, social services took away from a seven-month-old infant from her parents after she was found living in an unheated house on a diet of chips and pickles.