CANADA -- Jason Gordon, 35, doesn’t sleep — his mind racing through the events May 8 when he didn’t know if he would see his wife Svitlana Taraban and three-year-old son Hudson again.
The Bell Canada technician of two years had just finished installing a new telephone line in a customer’s backyard on Falesy Avenue when two Rottweiler’s attacked him, steps from the gate. He tried to get away as they pulled at his jacket, but then their teeth sank in.
“As soon as he clamped onto my arm, my knees gave out,” says Gordon.
He screamed for help as they overpowered and dragged him toward the underside of a deck.
“If he drags me under the deck, I’m dead,” says Gordon. “No one should have to think that.”
Gordon says the woman who was looking after the dogs for the homeowners was unable to call the dogs off or call for help. Luckily, three construction workers were within earshot.
“I don’t even want to know what would have happened if they hadn’t heard me. It would have been either a longer fight, or a different ending.”
The three yelled at the dogs from the other side of the fence. They shot off a fire extinguisher, which distracted the dogs briefly before one latched onto his elbow to pull him under and the other nipped at his face.
“I was just fighting,” says Gordon. “Those guys had to watch me for the whole time. No one would have gone into there without a weapon, because those dogs were tearing me apart. They had to sit there and watch while I was being dragged around the yard and being chewed.”
When officers from Waterloo Region Police arrived, they managed to distract the dogs, entering the yard with a riot shield and pistol drawn. Gordon was then able to stagger away, and the three construction workers pulled him up and over the fence.
“That’s when the pain really kicked in.”
Police shot the dogs. One died in the backyard. The other had to be put down later.
Gordon says his arm was pulp — down to the bone around his elbow. He recalls a construction worker shaking as he helped an officer pull away the remains of Gordon’s shirt and jacket to wrap it in gauze.
Doctors are still assessing the full extent of the damage following his emergency surgery. Once the swelling goes down there will be a second surgery to repair possible tendon and nerve damage, followed by an additional four to six weeks of recovery.
The incident remains under investigation by city bylaw enforcement officials.
For now, Gordon is trying to come to grips with what happened to him in that backyard. He has trouble sleeping and is in constant pain. He is also in a state of disbelief that it happened to him.
Most of all, he just wants to get back to work.
“I don’t know what set them off. If they had just been in the house, I would have been fine.”
(The Record - May 18, 2012)
