Staring at a pit bull that had just mauled two men, Marcel Lamoureux decided to try and calm the animal down — using some banter and some roast beef.

It was Tuesday evening. Lamoureux had heard yelling across the road from his home on Highway 148 just west of Aylmer and at first thought it was a loud argument. Then he figured it might be a fire, and went to check.

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He found two badly injured men and the dog, described by police as a “pit-bull type,” standing defiantly between them and help.

“When I went over to see, I found the two victims on the ground and an older woman with a stick,” Lamoureux said Wednesday. The woman was hitting the dog and trying to drive it away from the two bloodied men, but the dog didn’t want to leave.

Lamoureux felt hitting was the wrong approach, and he said he was afraid someone else would get hurt. But the dog showed no aggression to him.

“His attack was over. The victims were down and he was kind of rolling around as if they were trophies, like a cat with a mouse. His face was covered in blood.

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“So I yelled to someone to get meat, and I coaxed him along. I was nice to the dog. I figured you always negotiate nicely.” He told the dog, “Come on, Buddy.”

Someone brought the meat — it was roast beef from a neighbour’s dinner, Lamoureux recalls — and he dropped one piece near the dog, which didn’t eat it but sniffed at it.

He dropped another piece farther away and the dog went to investigate that, too.

Eventually they tossed a piece into the shed. The dog went inside. Lamoureux closed the shed door. It had taken 10 to 15 minutes to lure the dog away.

That’s when he could turn his attention to the men and their injuries.

“I was taking care of the older (man). There were two other people on the younger gentleman,” he said.

“The older one was definitely in pain because he was yelling and screaming. … I could see the arms were (split) right open, approximately three inches by one inch wide,” he said — 7.5 by 2.5 centimetres.

Lamoureux put some towels on the wounds and stayed until the ambulance arrived.

The younger man was in worse condition. “His left arm was like hamburger.”

He was slumped against the front of an SUV, semi-conscious, “and the whole front of the vehicle was covered in blood.”

Lamoureux didn’t know the men, and believes they and the dog were visiting.

Lamoureux said he felt no hesitation about stepping in to distract the dog.

“I have always taken charge of an emergency situation. It’s just natural for me and it doesn’t bother me,” he said. “While the fire’s hot, you put it out.”

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But he was still nervous: “He was a very intimidating dog. It was like seeing a big monster. Just the look of him was pretty scary.”

He stayed about five metres from the dog and said he had an escape route in mind, in case he needed one — to jump into the above-ground pool. He spoke calmly to the dog. “It’s like negotiating with an alcoholic. You don’t yell or scream or hit him, you negotiate with him. The dog would be the same.”

MRC des Collines police shot the dog, and said that it ultimately needed to be put down with the owner’s consent after being shot. They said they do not know why the dog attacked.

The older man, aged 69, is in the Hull hospital. The younger man, 40, had to be transferred to a Montreal hospital because of the extent of injuries to his arms.

Their version of what took place remains unknown.