Banner O’Berry’s mother has revealed how her 11-year-old son fought off three attacking dogs with a pair of pliers after they dragged him from a four-wheeler in rural Georgia.
Jessica O’Berry, the boy’s mother, shared the full account in a Facebook post after the Sunday attack in Atkinson, Georgia left her son with 17 open wounds requiring three and a half hours of surgery. Banner had been riding with his teammate and best friend when their vehicle broke down, and the two had just hopped off to fix it when they spotted the dogs charging toward them.
The boys scrambled back onto the four-wheeler, but one dog grabbed Banner by the ankle and “snatched him off,” Jessica O’Berry wrote. The other two dogs quickly joined the assault.
“He managed to grab one of the dogs and hold it down while trying to fight the others with those pliers,” she wrote on Facebook. His friend stayed beside him throughout, she added, “doing absolutely everything in his power to get those dogs away.”
The friend ultimately succeeded in driving the animals off and called for help. Banner was rushed to Coffee Regional Medical Center, where surgeons spent three and a half hours treating his wounds.
Jessica O’Berry described receiving a call from her son in the ambulance. He was “hurting like hell,” she wrote, and had a specific request: that she call his football coach to explain he would not be able to finish the season.
The Atkinson County Sheriff’s Office has taken all three dogs into custody for a 10-day hold, Chief Danial Knapik told reporters. One has been identified as a pit bull, while the other two are suspected to be hound and terrier mixed breeds. The sheriff’s office has begun court proceedings to have the dogs declared “vicious animals,” and paperwork has been served to the owners.
Banner O’Berry has begun recovering from the attack and made an appearance at a Sept. 16 football game, where he cheered on his teammates from a wheelchair on the sidelines, visible bandages wrapped around his legs.
“This warmed my heart!” Jessica O’Berry wrote alongside photos from the game.