A young Utah boy lost his entire hand as well as a portion of the lower part of his arm after he was bitten by one of his neighbor's two Siberian Huskies.

According to KSL, emergency crews responded to a home near 1100 North and 3600 West in Layton City at around 3:30 pm on Sunday to reports that a four-year-old boy, who remains unnamed, had lost his hand after he was bitten by a husky.

Layton Fire Battalion Chief Jason Cook said the child had a sock on his right hand and had reached through a chain-link fence separating his and his neighbor's yards to play with the two huskies that lived next door.

But one of the dogs bit down, amputating his hand about two or three inches above his wrist.

When investigators arrived at the scene, they were unable to recover the hand, with Cook stating they feared the worst. "There is fear that it was probably ingested by the dog that bit him," he said. "So at this point, it does not appear that reattachment is going to be an option for us."

The child's family had helped limit the bleeding until medical services arrived at the scene. He was flown to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City and was said to be in a "serious but stable" condition.

Cook admitted no one knew what had exactly gone down, telling KSL, "I think this is one of those innocent child play moments where the dogs have probably been in the backyard many, many times. He’s seen them and maybe even done something similar with them before, but for whatever reason this one kind of took a tragic turn today."

The owners of the two huskies, who were described as "fairly large," said the dogs had not bitten anyone in the past and that this was completely out of character. The American Kennel Club similarly have said that Siberian Huskies are usually "friendly, alert, and gentle" and that they are "not typically possessive or suspicious of strangers."

Nonetheless, Animal control officers had little choice but to take both the animals into custody. "Every animal that breaks skin in Davis County will be quarantined for 10 days for rabies observation,” said Rhett Nicks, Director of Davis County Animal Care and Control." Fox 13 reported that they have been quarantined pending further investigation, and it is currently unclear what will happen to them. 

Neighbor, Stacey Taft expressed her condolences for the boy and his family. "No parent wants to go through that," she was quoted saying. "They don’t want to see that kind of stuff happen and to not be able to stop it."