Sean Lowe, here attending the ABC TCA Winter 2013 Party in Pasadena, was attacked by his family dog last week. Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com
Sean Lowe had quite the traumatic experience over the weekend.
The 41-year-old Bachelor Nation alum revealed in a March 17 Instagram post that he was attacked by his family dog twice in a span of 12 hours several days earlier while throwing a barbecue with his friends.
The attack occurred on March 13 and was triggered by a smoke alarm going off after smoke from the barbecue went inside his home, Lowe said. Lowe was clearing the smoke when his dog snapped.
“He shows his teeth at me and just attacks me. I don’t mean bite and then run off — like a lot of dogs do when they’re scared or defensive — I mean attacks me,” Lowe explains in the video, per People.
“I feel him ripping into the flesh of my arm and at this point I’m doing everything I possibly can just to fend this dog off … I know I’m bleeding badly,” he continues.
He and his friends managed to get the dog back outside, but not before Lowe suffered significant cuts to his arm — including one that appeared to strike an artery.
“I look down at my arm and … it was cut so deep and I just see blood squirting, probably a couple feet,” he recalled with his wife, Catherine Lowe, by his side.
Lowe was rushed to the ER and received numerous stitches on his arm before being sent home.
He was attacked a second time the following morning, but this time with his wife and three children — sons Isaiah Hendrix, 6, and Samuel Thomas, 8, and daughter Mia Mejia, 5 — present.
Lowe was in the process of getting his kids in his parents’ vehicle in the front yard when his dog Moose accidentally escaped and rushed out the front door.
“It took everything I had to control this dog and I’m 220 pounds,” he said, noting that the outcome would’ve been much worse if it were his wife or kids who were attacked.
Lowe was wrestling his dog to the ground for nearly 10 minutes before first responders arrived. He was then rushed to the ER for a second time to receive stitches on his other arm.
“Going through a dog attack is pretty darn traumatic. Having to relive it less than 12 hours later, seeing that dog running straight at you, is a feeling I don’t think I ever want to experience again,” he explained.
While he doesn’t blame his dog (or the shelter his dog came from) for the attack, Lowe did say that they only had the dog — a boxer — for less than three months.
He described Moose as a loving and affectionate dog prior to the attack, and recalled taking a video of his dog resting his head on his lap just hours earlier.
He also says he has photos and videos of the attack itself but decided against posting them due to the violence.
Listen to the full story, as told by Lowe, in the video below:
“I think it’s clear he experienced a lot of trauma before we got him and had something neurologically wrong where just a switch flipped and he turned into an absolute killer,” Lowe added in the video.
“He really didn’t show any signs and he was great around my kids, he was great in the house. He was just an affectionate, loving boxer,” he continued.
According to People, Lowe has decided to work with animal control and a no-kill shelter to do what is best for Moose.
Lowe praised his wife for helping him cope with the attack and said he’ll “be OK,” but admitted that the attack has “taken a toll” on their family, who is “torn up” by the incident.
“She’ll catch me cringing every once in a while because I keep replaying it in my mind. But I think in the long run, I’ll be OK,” Lowe shared.
“Overall, I’m super grateful it was me and it was not my kids or my wife,” he added.
