Former "Bachelor" star Sean Lowe opened up about his decision to surrender his family's rescue dog, Moose, after two different attacks from the boxer sent him to the emergency room.
In a video Monday on Instagram, Lowe said the dog was first triggered last week when a smoke alarm went off in the house. His wife, Catherine, was out with their kids while Lowe was barbecuing with friends at the home.
Smoke from the barbecue drifted into the house, Lowe said, because he left the windows and the doors open because of the nice weather. Moose began biting at Lowe's hands and feet while he was trying to waft the smoke away from the alarm, he said.
Moose turned aggressive after Lowe gave him a stern "No," he recalled.
"It was right about that moment where he shows his teeth at me and just attacks me," Lowe said. "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, and I feel him just kind of ripping it into the flesh of my arm."
Lowe recounted trying to get Moose off of him until his friends came in to help, and he added that his arm was bleeding severely. His arm was spurting blood to the point that he believed Moose had nicked an artery.
"I go to the ER, and they stitch me up in five or six different places on my arm," Lowe said. "All the while, I still am just having a hard time reconciling what just happened with my dog."
In the video, Lowe raises his arm to display a line of stitches at his wrist where the radial and ulnar arteries would most likely be located.
Lowe and his wife said on Instagram in January that the family adopted Moose after their three children begged for a dog for Christmas. Over the last few months, Lowe has shared updates of the family with the 7-year-old boxer.
He said one of the hardest parts was trying to understand why his dog, whom he loved, would attack him. But the couple determined it wasn't safe to keep the dog in a home with children and began making calls to rehome Moose.
Lowe's parents came to pick up their kids the day after the attack, and at one point, when the backyard doors were blown open by the wind, Moose lunged for him again, he said.
"This dog is so strong, he's so explosive, but I'm able to wrestle him to the ground," Lowe said. "I've got ahold of his collar, but I know that he's ripped my arm open, and I just know, like, I'm fighting for my life here. ... I feel like if this dog gets up, he is going to kill me."
He added that it took everything in him to pin Moose down, fearing that if it had been his wife or kids, the dog could have killed them.
This time, Lowe's family called the police, and he required stitches once again on his other arm, he said. He showed both of his arms in the video; they appeared to be heavily cut and bruised.
But Lowe said he doesn't blame Moose for the situation or the rescue site where they adopted him.
"It wasn't Moose's fault," Lowe said. "He, I think it's clear, experienced a lot of trauma before we got him and had something neurologically wrong with him, where, just, a switch flipped. And he turned into an absolute killer, which was so weird."
Ultimately, Lowe said, he decided to share the situation with fans because he knew they would have questions about his injuries and where the dog was.
"Hopefully, you guys are all understanding, and we're torn up about it. We really are," Lowe said. "We miss our dog, as weird as that sounds. He was a really, really good dog. And we miss him."