A disabled man is being hailed a hero after he stepped in to free a screaming and seriously injured teenage girl from the clutches of a dog. John Goude, 52, said he was alerted to screaming near his home in Henry Orbell Close, March, on Sunday.
“Someone told me it was kids playing but I said it didn’t sound like that,” he said.
“As I walked out, I went to a neighbour’s home and from there was shocked to see this dog hanging onto this girl’s arm: the teenage girl was off the ground, screaming and trying to get it off her.
“I was in total shock, but my body just went into emergency mode,” he said. “I had to do something, had to get the dog of that girl who I knew lives down the same street.
“When I looked down the street I was absolutely shocked,” he said. “This dog – it was like a cross between a Staffy and an American bull dog – had his teeth locked into this girl’s arm.
“You could see from the distance her arm was shredded, and she was bleeding.
“I was like oh my God and she’s screaming, and I couldn’t see anybody going to her to her help and instantly I knew I’ve got to get over there, I’ve got to help her. It’s going to kill her; it’s killing her and I’m sort of skipping as I can’t run with my disability.
“I’m scared – in my head I know this is a big dog and he’s killing her but what else is he capable of, so I’m really scared but I have to do something and as I’ve got there and I’m really like oh my God oh my God what do.
“I’m assessing what’s around me who’s around me and there’s nothing; all I’ve got is my walking stick.
“I am thinking if this dog’s going to bite anybody you’re going to bite me rather than that poor little girl. She’s screaming her heart out and her arm is absolutely in pieces.
“So, I’ve got to get his attention on me rather than her, so I hit it with my stick on the back side, but it had a different reaction; the dog moved around to its right, but it was dragging the girl with it. It was locked on her.
“I think I can’t do that again because it’s causing even more damage so all I could think of was like I’ve got to break that lock; I have got to get his attention off of her onto me”
He said he used his walking stick to distract the dog who then freed the girl but then turned on him.
“The dog’s now snapping at my stick, and I see the opportunity to get control of this dog, so I let go of my stick and I jumped on the dog, and I grabbed its harness with my left hand.
“I grabbed its head to pin it down.
“The dog’s realised he got a new fight now, so he’s whipped its head around and bit me on the side of the arm.
“By now I’ve got my hand on its ear and its cheek, and I dug its head into the gravel, and I literally gravelled it.
(You can watch the full undedited CambsNews interview with John Goude here)
“The dog is startled and I’m still on top of it now I’m looking up because what what’s going through my head is I got this but what about the girl.
“She’s my main concern in all of it. I have control of this dog now, but the girl has got into a car and the people in the car are looking at me – I shout at them get her to the hospital now. Her injuries are horrific – get her to the hospital I shout.
“I get a voice back going ‘we’re waiting for the ambulance’, and I say you haven’t got time -her injuries are horrific. She’s oozing blood – get her to the to the hospital now.
“I’m looking at the car and I’m seeing this woman that’s blubbing her eyes out absolutely hysterical – it’s the girl’s mother.”
John assures them he’s ok and the car drives off.
“It’s okay I’ve got the dog I told them,” he said. “Now I’m now trying to control this dog it’s semi agitated trying and I’m now looking around at the crowd to see if I could shout for help.
“I saw this woman with a phone, and I shout at her to call the police now – I need I need help; I’m struggling here.
“It’s a really strong dog and it took all my strength to hold it. I’m fighting I’m just waiting for the police.
“I’ve got to do is remember that it’s a dog and dogs don’t like fear, and I thought so if I’m angry the dog’s going to respond to it and he’s going to get even more angry with me, so I thought I have to get self-control even though I want to pommel it for what it’s done to that poor little girl.
“I’ve got to get control here and I know through my training of nursing and all the rest of it as I’ve been through my medical services, emergency services and done all different types of training
“So deep breaths, calm down, I told myself and I’ve now gone from instead of pummelling this dog I’ve now gone to something totally crazy and now caressing it.
“I tell the dog ‘it’s all right bud, you’re all right’ and ‘I’ve got control of you, you’re all right, nothing’s going to happen now’”.
“As I’m doing this it starts licking me it’s licking me, and its tail is wagging – and I’m like there you go that’s what we’re after boy well done you’re doing well.
“It was crazy to get that sort of reaction after he tried to bite me and I’m trying to put his head to the ground.
“Now I’m caressing him and he’s licking me – it was a crazy moment and okay you’re all right you’re all right.
“The police turn up and the officer’s face was a picture for me she’s like ‘oh my God how the hell have you done that’ and I said I would tell her later.
“She tells me that the dog unit is on the way and other resources on the way and a helicopter ambulance has turned up; it seems the mother and daughter hadn’t gone to the hospital but were around the corner where she lived and were being treated there.”
John then described how police officers arrived with leads and eventually were able to release the dog from his grip and take it away.
“I concentrated on the dog who by now is calm and I am stroking his head telling him ‘you’re all right, you’re fine’ and he started to ease. Next thing the dog was licking me, and his tail was wagging.
“’F*** me’ I thought that a change, he has gone from wanting to rip my arm to licking me”
John added: “All I could think of was stay calm, if I remained calm then the dog might stay calm, I did not want him to react to fear.
John said another police officer arrived with a lead but when the dog saw it “he went ballistic and trying to bite me and I told them to back off.
“From there I said to another copper you need to distract the dog, get its attention and whilst that was happening a WPC slowly came to my left and threaded a lead to the dog’s harness”.
John said another lead was attached and police asked if I would mind enticing the dog into the dog unit police van.
“I refused,” he said. “I certainly didn’t want to get stuck in a van with a vicious dog.”
He said police eventually came up with riot shields to enable him to walk away and for the dog to be properly secured.
“I told the police officer I was fine but asked her to hurry up to get further help as by then I was very tired.
“I shouldn’t have been in this position being disabled and the state I’m completely exhausted, but I had to save that girl’s life.
“It was killing her and everybody that’s witnessed it, and everyone who has since knocked on my door, said if I hadn’t stepped in she would be dead.”
John said that afterwards paramedics offered him help but he said the dog had only nicked him and he was physically fine.
“My main priority was I got to get that girl safe,” he says.
He said members of the dog owner’s family had been to see him and gave him a “massive thank you” for his actions.
John says he understands the teenage girl has a broken arm and tendon damage where the dog bit her; he said she has also been advised of multiple skin grafts.
He feels sorry for the family “as they are going to suffer for having a nasty dog. I don’t know if they know it or not, but they found out the hard way of having it and I found out the hard way of what it takes to fight a dog.
“My God am I hurting from what I did. Many people have given me double backhanded compliments such as ‘you’re bloody idiot for what you did but what a hero because nobody else would have taken on a dog that was trying to kill somebody’
“I don’t know if it was actually going to kill the girl, but people have told me that when a dog shreds a victim, and they break the muscle they break the arm or break the limb to drag the person down and then they go in for the kill.
“There’s no there’s no doubt that that dog was not going to let up until it had done it so me jumping in when I did me, basically me, I was picking a fight with a dog, but I would far rather me got that got bitten.
“I thought ‘you want to pick on somebody, pick on me but you leave that poor little girl alone’ and that was all really.”
But John dislikes being described, as many are now, a hero.
“I couldn’t stand there and watch a teenager being killed, even with the physical state I am in,” he said.
“I am simply not one of those who stands around with a phone chatting but doing nothing. I had to stop that dog – I do not see myself as a hero just a good community volunteer.”
John’s mother, Jill Goude, said: “We are very proud of him. He had a motorbike accident on his way to work where he broke two vertebrae in his back. Hence he has to walk with a stick.
“Despite his own disability and pain, he still could not hold back and do nothing. Not everyone can be expected to tackle a dangerous dog, but John has the character of a hero.”
The attack by a mixed breed dog happened at about 10.45am on Sunday in the area of Papworth Street, March.
“Two women were taken to Peterborough City Hospital by ambulance with serious but not life-threatening bite injuries,” said a police spokesperson.
“The dog was seized by police and was later put down after being disclaimed by its owner.
“The breed of the dog is not clear, but it is believed to be mixed and not covered by dangerous dog legislation.”
