SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- A 3-year old boy was mauled by a dog Tuesday in Springfield, as neighbors desperately tried to save the child.

The dog attack happened around noon, behind a home in the 16-hundred block of Kenton St.

Neighbors told News Center 7, that they tried to grab anything they could to beat the dog away from the little boy. One neighbor, Kim Stapleton, said she came running when she heard the child's mother screaming. Stapleton said, " I just heard her yelling help me, help me and when I came outside the big dog was biting her baby under the truck."

The child, Pierson Ward, was rushed to the hospital while police and Humane Society officials tracked down the dog.

The dog was found outside of it's home, which was next door to the Pierson house. A police detective and a Humane Society officer chased it, then eventually lured it back into its own yard.

The dog's owner, Richard Leeth, was cited for dog at large and failure to innoculate. The dog, named "Pepper" was taken to the Clark County Humane Society for a 10-day quarantine.

At last check, the littel boy was being treated at Children's Medical Center in Dayton.