“The Bachelor” alum Sean Lowe revealed that he was recently attacked by his family’s rescue dog, a boxer named Moose.
“I guess you could say our family has been through something pretty traumatic over the weekend,” he began in an Instagram video posted on Monday, March 17.
While seated next to his wife, Catherine Giudici, whom he met on season 17 of “The Bachelor” in 2013, Lowe recounted his harrowing experience. He explained that the dog attack occurred when he and some friends were barbecuing at his home. Things got smoky, and Lowe grabbed a dish rag to waft smoke away from a fire alarm.
“As I’m holding the dish rag, Moose comes up and, like, bites it and kind of nips my finger really aggressively, which is something that he does not do,” Lowe recalled. “Then he goes and starts to bite my feet. … He was biting my feet so hard, he actually put holes in my shoes, and it was hurting my feet.”
The former Bachelor firmly told the dog to stop, but the attack continued.
“It was right about that moment where he shows his teeth at me and just attacks me. And I don’t mean like, bite and run off, like a lot of dogs do when they’re scared or defensive. I mean, attacks me,” Lowe said. “And I feel him just kind of ripping into the flesh of my arm. And at this point, I am doing everything I possibly can just to fend this dog off. … I’m not trying to be dramatic, but I honestly just felt like, ‘I am fighting for my life here.’”
The television personality was stunned by Moose’s sudden aggression due to their bond.
“We’ve only had him for a little under three months, but, like, he’s my dog,” Lowe said. “I walk him. If I run errands, he goes in the truck with me. When I get out of my chair, my kids don’t like it, because he follows me. He doesn’t follow them. Like, it’s my dog. … It was so bizarre. Like, why is my dog who I know loves me attacking me so aggressively?”
READ MORE: ‘The Bachelor’ stars split after facing public controversy
When Lowe realized that one of the cuts in his arm was “squirting” blood “probably a couple [of] feet” in the air, he knew he needed medical attention.
“My first thought is I think that dog may have nicked an artery,” he said. “And we have the video, which the video is way too violent. I’m not going to share that.”
Lowe’s friends rushed him to the emergency room, where he received stitches in five or six different places on his arm. The next day, he began making calls to no-kill animal shelters to figure out what to do with Moose. Before the dog could be relocated, however, Moose attacked Lowe again.
Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici in 2013.Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP
“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 that I don’t think I ever want to experience again,” Lowe said.
Although his injured arm was “useless,” Lowe managed to “wrestle [Moose] to the ground” and grab hold of his collar. He felt that if Moose got up, “he is going to kill me.” After “about ten minutes” of Lowe laying on top of the dog, law enforcement officials arrived on the scene.
Despite the frightening experience, Lowe said he doesn’t “blame Moose a bit” and thinks the incident proves the dog “experienced a lot of trauma before we got him.” He noted that prior to the attack, Moose was “great” with his and Giudici’s two young children.
“I’m super grateful that it was me [who got attacked] and not my kids or my wife,” Lowe said.
Giudici and the couple’s two children were not home at the time of the first attack, although they did witness the second attack. Lowe noted that his children were safely in a car about to leave for their grandparents’ house when the second attack occurred.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips/.
