KENOSHA — A 4-year-old boy has been recovering after he was mauled by a dog.
The Kiely family said the dog belongs to an acquaintance who stopped by the house Monday.
Security video from the home in showed a white pitbull tied to the front porch. Immediately after Colin Kiely tried to pet it the dog lunged at him and bit his face.
"I won't say I was in shock. I knew I needed to react. I knew he was hurt," Paul Kiely, Colin's father, said.
The video showed Paul carry his son away. He ran to a hospital around the block believing he would get there faster than waiting for an ambulance. After Paul runs off the video showed the owner tend to her dog.
Today's TMJ4 reached out to the dog's owner. She said that her dog was provoked.
"Colin was unsupervised petting a big dog. My dog was fine wagging tail, but as soon as eye contact happened, and he leaned further down that's testing dominance aggressive or not that's taken as a threat to any animal," owner AnneMarie Archambeault said.
Paul said Colin underwent a 2.5 hour surgery.
"This is life-changing. You go from a happy 4-year-old boy, perfect child, to having to face multiple surgeries for the rest of your life, revision surgery, plastic surgery. No child should have to go through that," Kiely said.
Kenosha County health officials said the dog owner has not been cooperative. They said the dog was not licensed with the city, and they have no evidence it was up to date on its rabies vaccine. Health officials said they made contact with the owner yesterday and that she took the dog to an unknown location.
"It's unbelievably frustrating. It's just a matter time before this dog bites somebody else and to be totally irresponsible...have a dog that has done what it did. You know why would you put a dog over a child," Kiely said.
Health officials said they issued an order to declare the dog as vicious. They also requested Kenosha Police give the owner two citations.
Kenosha Police said there is an active investigation on the matter.
