Family Still Shaken After Dog Attack (Rottweiler)

[Miakoda]

Family Still Shaken After Dog Attack
Debbie Williams
WKRG Channel 5
Jan 29, 2007

A community is in shock and a family grieving after an 18 month old little girl is killed and her brother injured during a dog attack. It happened in the Appleton community in Escambia County near Brewton. It looks like any other yard, kids toys are scattered around, a lawn mower sits waiting to be put to use again, but something awful happened here. Angela Houston lives just down the road, she didn’t see what happened but she certainly heard about it from other neighbors. "They told me that a rottweiler had bitten the back of the baby's head. The child was dead and the other child had been mauled up really bad."

18 month old Taylor Kitlica was killed almost instantly when a rottweiler chained in the yard, attacked. Her two and a half year old brother was also injured and treated and released from a local hospital. Escambia County Sheriff’s investigators say Taylor’s father had been working on a truck when a strange rottweiler approached. Thinking it looked familiar he chained it in hopes the owner would claim it. "They have several big dogs, I don't know if they are dangerous or not. I've been concerned about the children you know and the type of dogs that they are," says Houston.

Neighbors say they really didn’t know the Kitlica family that well but they did know the dogs and the dogs were something they were concerned about.” "I felt like it was something that happened that could have been avoided." So concerned, one neighbor would only talk to News Five if we didn’t identify her. "Even if they had them chained up, children do not know not to go to the animals 'cause they just think they are a pet dog," she says. How such a tragedy could happen is still under investigation but what a whole community already knows is a little girl was taken away from this world much too soon.

The rottweiler was euthanized at a local vet clinic. Sheriff Grover Smith stated that this is a “sad and tragic incident” and asked anyone with information about the dog to please contact the sheriff’s office.

[Miakoda]

(BREWTON, Ala.) January 29 -- An 18-month-old baby girl has died from an attack by a Rottweiler in the Brewton area early Sunday night. The girl's 2 and 1/2 year old brother survived the attack.

According to Escambia County Sheriff's Deputies, a family from the Brewton area had found a Rottweiler wandering in their neighborhood. They chained the dog up and put it in their yard in hopes the owner would see it and come take the dog home.

Around 5 o'clock Sunday evening, the two children apparently got within reach of the chained dog, who attacked them. The younger child, identified as Taylor Kitlica, was killed and the older brother received injuries to his back, but did survive the ordeal.

Officials say due to the attack, the dog has since been euthanized, but authorities would still like to find the dog's owner. If you have any information on the dog or it's owner, contact the Escambia County, Alabama Sheriff's Department.