COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — After a 90-pound pit bull tore through a fence, police say it leaped onto — and bit into — the back of a 4-year-old neighbor girl.

The dog was taken into custody and will be put to sleep. The animal's owner has been cited with four violations, said Cottonwood Heights police officer Beau Babka.

Apparently, the dog forced its way through a fence made from a combination of wood and chain link into the neighbor's yard where three children, ages 2, 4 and 6, were playing Thursday.

"It knocked her down and was biting her back, near the girl's neck," Babka said.

When the children screamed, Tanya Schroeder, the mother of two of the children, bolted through the back door to fight the dog off the neighbor girl.

"She probably saved the girl's life," Babka said. "Who knows how much longer that little girl could have lasted like that, under that big dog."

The injured girl made it safely into the house with the other children, but it wouldn't be that easy for Schroeder, a smallish, athletic woman who only outweighed her snarling attacker by "maybe" 10 pounds, Babka said. Before she, too, eventually made it into the house, the dog had bitten off part of her ear and bit her in about a half-dozen other places.

The incident occurred near 8000 South and 3400 East. The owner relinquished ownership rights Friday, essentially giving permission to have the animal put down. The dog had no prior official record of violence.

Babka said the dog's owner, who was not home when the incident occurred, "is very respectful and remorseful about it all."

The four citations include two counts for an attack, one for no license and one for the dog being at large.

— Jacob Hancock