COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A toddler was mauled todeath Sunday by two dogs that broke loose from a neighbor's yard, authorities said.
Officials said Shannon Tucker, 2, died about an hour later at a hospital of injuries suffered when a pit bull and a Rottweiler mauled her.
The owner of the two dogs was charged with involuntary manslaughter.
'We take this case very, very, very seriously and I hope that it will be handled as a homicide case,' Mayor Dana Rinehart said. 'While I feel terribly sorry for the mother and father of this little girl, I am equally livid over the attack of these dogs.
'I don't think these dogs have a place in our city,' the mayor said. 'Anybody who owns them ought to pack them up and get them out of town.'
Authorities said the girl was playing in the back yard when one of the dogs grabbed her by the neck and carried her away where the other began attacking.
Kenneth I. Ferguson, 32, heard the dogs and came out of his apartment and beat them off the girl, authorities said.
The girl was taken the hospital where she died. Ferguson was then arrested. The Franklin County Animal Control unit took the dogs to the animal shelter.
Residents in the apartment complex had circulated a petition trying to get Ferguson and his dogs to leave the area after the same two dogs had attacked Shannon's cat a couple of weeks ago. That cat had to be put to sleep.
