3-year-old mauled by dog in Kenton Street backyard
Boy at Children's Medical Center for surgery; dog taken to Humane Society for rabies test.
RELATED: See photos from the scene
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
SPRNGFIELD — A 3-year-old boy suffered multiple injuries after being mauled by a dog around noon Tuesday, May 13.
The toddler, Pierson Ward, was rushed to Childrens' Medical Center in Dayton after the attack, which occurred in the backyard of a house on Kenton Street.
Extras
"He was just being tossed around," said neighbor Dedra Spurgeon, who saw the attack in her backyard through her kitchen window.
Another neighbor, Kim Stapleton, said she was in her house when she heard the child's mother screaming for help.
Stapleton called 911 and then ran across the street wielding a broomstick to attempt to get the dog off the little boy. A newborn baby — belonging to Pierson's mother, Ashley Ward — was outside, too, just a few feet from where the attack was taking place.
Stapleton poked the dog, a 6-year-old chow-husky mix named Pepper, with the broomstick several times until it ran away. She then picked up the child and put him in his mother's car.
"He was bleeding pretty bad," Stapleton said, "from under his arm, the back of his head, the back of his neck and his back."
It tookofficials a half hour to captured the dog. It was later taken away by the Clark County Humane Society.
The dog is owned by an elderly couple, Spurgeon said. It is kept in a pen in the owner's back yard, but has been loose pretty often in the past couple of weeks, Spurgeon said.
The dog will likely be euthanized so that it may be tested for rabies, said Ed Sisler, director of the Humane Society.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0367 or ecavallaro@coxohio.com.
