"My daddy ate my eyes."

A Bakersfield father is accused of biting out one of the eyes of his small child and similarly mutilating the other eye, leaving the child blind.

After attacking the child, 34-year-old Angel Vidal Mendoza Sr. quickly left his apartment in a wheelchair, entered a backyard of a nearby vacant home and attacked his own legs with an ax, severely injuring himself, Bakersfield police reported.

The child, 4-year-old Angelo Mendoza Jr., later told police, "My daddy ate my eyes."

Source - Bakersfield Californian - See full story here.

How can society protect it's children? I wish I knew. Child protection services cannot take a child from it's parents just because they think the parent may harm the child and once a parent abuses a child the damage is already done. I believe every person has the right to have children and raise them in the way he or she sees fit, but parents do not own their children and do not have the right to give them inhumane treatment. Government can create laws that provide punishment as a deterrent for such behavior, but cannot prevent such behavior.

So what can we do? We can never eliminate the problem but I do believe a society based on strong moral values will decrease the instance of such behavior. In America today, we worship celebrities who use drugs and cannot remain married for more than a few months. Our politicians behave as though they are above the law and when caught are seldom punished adequately. When society worships people, it decays from within because man is far from perfect. It's impossible to make everyone believe in a higher power, but when the majority of a society believes and condemns behavior that is destructive to the society, crime will diminish and life will prosper.