Baby Dumping: Dog Finds Baby in Bag, Bushes

California - While walking her sister's dog, Jennifer Scott told a CNN reporter she heard a faint sound, like a kitten crying in the bushes. She ignored the sound, but the dog was insistent, so she investigated further and found a newborn baby, with the umbilical cord still attached, encased in what was reported to look like a comforter/bedding plastic bag. (KRON-4 News, California, February 2007)

The newborn, a male child, was in stable condition later at the hospital, and has been turned over to the custody of child protective services while police investigate the reasons he was abandoned.

After interviewing apartment residents nearby, the investigation led police to 24-year-old Kalita Thomas as the woman who had both given birth to and abandoned the young boy. Thomas was arrested and according to the FresnoBee.com, she is being held on a $600,000 bond for pending charges of child endangerment and suspicion to commit murder.

In the State of California, the California Penal Code section 273a states penalties for child endangerment means Thomas could be facing jail time, fines, and a year-long child abusers program. Additionally, it appears Thomas could be facing anywhere from 2-20 years in prison if convicted of suspicion to commit murder, by fleeing the scene of a crime which could have resulted in the death of another.

According to the previously mentioned news video, what is particularly upsetting to many residents who lived near Thomas is that a hospital was just a few blocks away from where the baby was dumped behind the bushes. Under California's Safely Surrender Baby Law, the state imposes no criminal penalties and a 'no questions asked' policy should a woman want to surrender her baby safely at a hospital, police station, fire station, or other emergency personnel or law enforcement agency.

The person who leaves the child will be given a bracelet to identify themselves as the parent should they change their mind and seek to have their child returned. As long as the child was safely dropped off at a safe location, as determined by law, the parent will be provided counseling and assistance, but will be reunited with their child.

The law was enacted in California in 2001, and Gov. Schwarzenegger signed legislation in October 2005 to extend the law permanently, which went into effect January 2006. As of January 2007, the State of California reports in their fact sheet at http://www.babysafe.ca.gov/ that: "82 newborns have been safely surrendered in California while another 146 infants have been found alive following their illegal abandonment."

While states laws very on baby abandonment, all states have some type of law prohibiting leaving a baby alone for long periods of time, and at least 46 our of 50 states have some type of law against leaving a baby in a public or private location, unsupervised, with no intention to return for the child. Texas was the first state to pass legislation against 'baby dumping' as it was called in that state in 1999, when an unprecedented number of babies were abandoned.