Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 3076

Tonight's special guest is Tracy Belle from Independence, Iowa. "I was the unwanted child of a 18 year old junkie who was gang raped," Tracy says. "She gave me to a couple who already had 17 children. My adopted father was just recently released from prison for raping two and molesting other of his biological daughters." They moved from Iowa to California. "My father was very inappropriate with his hands and at times I would barricade myself in my room." The streets were safer than home so Tracy left at 15. "The men on the streets all wanted the same thing but they were willing to pay." One day a biker injected her with meth, and held her captive." She escaped, an addicted street kid. "I couldn't work or go to school. I slept under bridges and in bathrooms, finding food behind grocery stores." Sometimes she got a meal from men who needed company." She goes on,"At 18 I was pregnant. I lost my first baby, but was pregnant again soon. I was forced to ask for help from the very foster people who'd driven me to the streets." Six years later she followed when they took her child to Iowa. It took her 8 years to put legal records together to get her daughter back. "I struggled with drugs and alcohol. For years I was on psychiatric drugs and thereafter I used meth and had suicide attempts." Then, one day she was done! "I now run Wildthunder's Rain, a state and federally permitted wildlife and animal rehabilitation facility. I also work with youth from 'Four Oaks' for at-risk kids who don't or can't be placed in foster care, or who need help transitioning into life outside of foster systems. I understand what its like to be cold, scared, alone, hungry and unwanted."