Utterly inhuman

A mentally disabled woman and her daughter were forced to live in an Ohio basement with snakes and pitbulls and were treated like slaves for more than two years, US prosecutors said Tuesday.
The case came to light after the woman was caught stealing a candy bar and told police she'd rather go to jail than go home because her roommates "were mean to her."
Three of her tormentors were arrested on human trafficking charges after a lengthy investigation.
"We are yet again reminded that modern-day slavery exists all around us," said Steven Dettelbach, US Attorney for the northern district of Ohio.
"The victims in this case endured violence, threats, sub-human living conditions and other horrific acts."
The woman, who was not named, was made to stay with repeated threats that her daughter -- who is now five or six -- would be harmed or taken away from her if she didn't do as she was told, prosecutors said.
The woman and her daughter were initially forced to sleep on a cement floor in a locked basement room that also housed a roaming iguana.
They were repeatedly beaten, threatened with the pit bulls and the snakes and watched with a baby monitor to make sure the woman wouldn't untie her daughter's bound hands or sneak some food or water to the girl.
They also shaved her head into a mohawk and wrote "slut," "whore" and other derogatory words on her face and chest with a permanent marker at one point, charging papers said.