An 11-year-old football player was left with over a dozen open wounds after he was savaged by a pack of dogs while playing outside with his best friend.
Banner O’Berry, from Atkinson, Georgia, was with his teammate Sunday when his four-wheeler broke down, but as they hopped off to fix it they spotted three dogs running towards them, his mom, Jessica O’Berry, explained in a Facebook post.
Once the duo noticed the dogs charging toward them, they scrambled on top of the four-wheeler when one dog grabbed O’Berry by the ankle and “snatched him off,” before the other two joined in on the attack, his mom said. Her son then desperately tried to fight off the toothy pack using an on-hand pair of pliers.
“He managed to grab one of the dogs and hold it down while trying to fight the others with those pliers,” Jessica O’Berry wrote, adding that his friend stayed by him “doing absolutely everything in his power to get those dogs away.”
The attack left O’Berry with 17 open wounds to his legs that required three and a half hours of surgery at Coffee Regional Medical Center.
In her post, Jessica O’Berry detailed a call she received from her son in the ambulance while he was “hurting like hell” asking her to call his football coach to let him know he wouldn’t be able to finish the season.
The trio of dogs has since been taken into custody for a 10-day hold by the Atkinson County Sheriff’s Office, Chief Danial Knapik told The Post.
One dog has been identified as a pit bull with the other two suspected to be hound and terrier mixed breeds, Knapik said.
The sheriff’s office has initiated a court process to deem the dogs as “vicious animals” and notifying paperwork has been served to the dogs’ owners, according to Knapik.
O’Berry is now recovering from the terrifying attack and was able to make it to a Sept. 16 football game where he cheered on his team in a wheelchair from the sidelines.
“This warmed my heart!” his mom wrote as she shared photos of him at the game, with visible bandages on his legs.
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