An 11-year-old football player from Atkinson County, Georgia, needed more than three hours of surgery after three dogs mauled him while he was outside with his best friend.

Banner O’Berry was riding a four-wheeler with teammate Karson Clayton on Sunday, Sept. 13, near Wood Duck Road in Axson when the vehicle broke down. As they got off to fix it, they saw three dogs running at them across an open field, his mother, Jessica O’Berry, wrote on Facebook. The boys climbed onto the four-wheeler. One dog seized Banner by the ankle and “snatched him off.” The other two joined in. Banner grabbed one dog and held it down while fighting the others with a pair of pliers. Jessica said Karson stayed and did “absolutely everything in his power to get those dogs away.” She later said Karson saved her son’s life.

Banner was taken by ambulance to Coffee Regional Medical Center. Doctors closed 17 open wounds on his legs in about 3½ hours of surgery. From the ambulance he called his mother, “hurting like hell,” and asked her to tell his football coach he would not finish the season.

The Atkinson County Sheriff’s Office said the attack happened about 3:30 p.m. Chief Danial Knapik told the New York Post the dogs were taken into custody for a 10-day hold. One was identified as a pit bull; the other two were believed to be hound and terrier mixes. The office began a court process to classify them as vicious animals and served notice on the owners. Deputies said at least one dog left its yard and went down the road to where the children were.

Banner later attended an Atkinson County Middle School football game on Sept. 16 and cheered from a wheelchair on the sidelines, still bandaged. “This warmed my heart,” his mother wrote.

Sources

• New York Post, Amber Roldan, Sept. 17, 2026
• WALB, WRDW
• Atkinson County Sheriff’s Office
• Jessica O’Berry Facebook posts