Marcus Geary and his mother, Joan Stammers, were visiting the home of Anna and John Radford when he and a friend, William Leaver, decided to venture through nearby bushland.

They returned through a neighbour’s property, where the attack occurred.

After the Radford’s dog returned without the boys, Mr Radford and Ms Stammers went to investigate.

A tearful Ms Radford recalled Marcus screaming as he was mauled by the dog.

“John didn’t put a lot of importance on it, he said ‘that’s just the next door neighbour’s kids,’ and started walking back up to the house,” she said.

“And Joan said ‘no, that was Marcus’ voice that I can hear scream’.”

Ms Radford said her husband and Ms Stammers ran down to the neighbour’s property, both collecting sticks to fend off the dog.

“The dog was on Marcus at this point, and [Ms Stammers] was trying to get the dog away but then it let go of Marcus and was going to attack her, so it went back to Marcus again,” she said.

“John came and got a stick as well, and I think it was just with John’s voice and him going to really penetrate the stick at this dog that it got afraid and ran underneath the house.

“But by this time it had done a lot of damage to Marcus.”

Paramedics treated Marcus at the scene before taking him to the North West Regional Hospital, where he was then airlifted to the Launceston General Hospital.

He was met by his father, Michael Geary, who was shocked at the extent of the injuries.

“From both hospitals, the doctors have said it’s the worst dog attack they’ve ever seen,” he said.

“On Saturday night, he had a two-and-a-half hour surgery to flush everything out and put drains in and try and do some repair work.”

Marcus underwent a second, four-hour surgery on Sunday morning, and remains in hospital recovering.

This week, a Waratah-Wynyard Council spokesperson said the council received advice of the dog attack on Monday morning and a subsequent investigation is expected to be complete by Wednesday afternoon or Thursday.

“This investigation has been carried out in liaison with Tasmania Police,” the spokesperson said.

“Council’s regulatory staff have attended the property and are satisfied that the dog is suitably contained on the subject property at this stage.”

Sergeant Steve Keiselis of Wynyard Police confirmed the matter was the subject of an ongoing investigation.