Boy's show chickens killed in alleged dog attack BYBEE, Tenn. (WVLT) - As far as alarm clocks go, Jerry Ball's roosters are pretty reliable.
"You wake up at five o'clock and it's time to go to work," he says.
But 14-year-old Ball's roosters don't just wake him up for work. They are his work.
"Rain, sleet, snow...he's still out here watering them and feeding them every day," says his mom, Cathy Ball.
Jerry Ball is grooming them to be his next trophy-winning show chickens. He enters them in county fairs around the south.
"Some people have cats and dogs. He's got chickens," says Cathy Ball.
But last week, Jerry learned he had far fewer.
"When I got home and seen them all, I just busted into tears," he says.
The Ball family says three dogs came onto their property and killed fifteen of his chickens and injured eight more.
"It's my passion. For somebody's dogs to do this, it killed me," he says.
Nearly a third of Jerry's flock was either killed or injured which he says puts his upcoming competitions on hold.
"Some things you just got to move on, but it's going to be hard," he says.
The Balls' say many people assume their chickens are used for cock-fighting, but they say that is not the case. The Balls' told the Cocke County Sheriff's Office that at least one of the dogs belonged to a neighbor who lives down the road. Local8News reached out to her over the phone. She says none of the dogs belong to her and that they were strays.
Jerry says he takes a portion of his winnings and puts them towards his college education. The Balls' estimate it is about $10,000 in losses.
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