Starving toddlers spotted foraging for twigs and grass to eat -- in America

Two naked and starving toddlers wandered away from the filthy Florida home where they'd been staying to forage for sticks and grass to eat.

The girls were dehydrated, extremely unkempt and covered in bug bites when police arrived, and the officers saw them trying to eat the grass and twigs they'd gathered, reported WKMG-TV.

Palm Bay police said the home where the girls were staying was overflowing with trash and was "not livable for an extended period of time."

The girls' great-grandmother, 77-year-old Joanne Hall, told police she had fed the girls toast but couldn't remember when, and she did not want to let officers into her home.

Officers saw countertops overflowing with trash and a stained sofa where the girls slept, and they said the walls were smeared with feces.

"It was impossible to walk on the floor and not step on something of filth," police said in their report.

Hall told police the girls' mother, 25-year-old Corey Rickards, had gone fishing, and the younger woman said she had no choice to leave the girls, who are both in diapers, at the home.

Rickards told police her great-grandmother was capable of taking care of the children but was too lazy.

Police said they have been called to Hall's home multiple times because the children had wandered off, and the girls were placed in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Hall and Rickards were charged with felony child neglect, and a third woman responsible for the girls' care is also wanted in the case.