In Our Modern Dystopia, We Treat Animals Like Children And Children Like Animals
With God and the Imago Dei kicked to the curb, it's a Peter Singer world where babies are less than human and animals get promoted to take their place.With God and the Imago Dei kicked to the curb, it's a Peter Singer world where babies are less than human and animals get promoted to take their place.Actor Jon Bernthal calls pit bull fear 'ridiculous': 'It's just dog racism'
Action star Jon Bernthal came out in defense of the most widely criticized breed of dog and said their behavior depends on the owner, not the animal.
Star of "The Punisher" and "The Walking Dead," Bernthal appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" on Saturday and briefly referenced pit bulls when asked about his own dogs.
'It's like being afraid of somebody for their race or their sexual orientation.'
Doggie DEI
Bernthal has advocated for pit bulls on numerous occasions and has three of his own: Lil Bam Bam, Boss, and Venice.
On Saturday, host Howard Stern asked whether Bernthal's dogs were present when he got into a fight, a story he told earlier in the interview.
"Did they attack?" Stern asked.
"No. ... My dogs are the greatest, and they're unbelievably well-trained," Bernthal replied, immediately defending the breed against those who see them as aggressive. "People have got to stop that."
The 49-year-old then chalked up any bias toward the dogs as a form of racism.
"It's just racism. It's just dog racism. I think to be afraid of a breed of dog is completely ridiculous. It's like being afraid of somebody for their race or their sexual orientation; it's completely ridiculous."
At that point, Bernthal made his most distinct claim, saying that "if a pit bull bites you, it's going to suck, but they're no more likely to bite you than a chihuahua or any other breed of dog."
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Killer stats
A study published in the Journal of Surgical Research in May stated that out of 276 patients who sustained dog bite injuries between 2016 and 2024, "pit bulls were implicated in nearly one-third of all injuries and were significantly more likely to require surgical intervention" in comparison to other breeds.
A 2023 study by DogsBite.org stated that "attacks by pit bulls are associated with higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than are attacks by other breeds of dogs."
The study went on to say that between 2011 and 2017, pit bulls "inflicted the highest prevalence of injuries" where the breed of the dog was known. This totaled 245 out of 511 cases, or 47.9%. The breed was known just 36% of the time, or 511 of 1,422.
Data from the same organization claimed that pit bulls were responsible for 71% of fatal dog bites in 2017, 72% in 2018, and 68% in 2019.
RELATED: Rabid defenders of pit bulls are spiritually blind — and ignoring the tragic stats
Bite ban
The same literature review concluded that "strict regulation of pit bulls may substantially reduce the U.S. mortality rates related to dog bites.”
National legislation surrounding pit bulls exists in countries like the U.K., where they are banned, and New Zealand, where they cannot be imported.
Additionally, animal care retailer Hepper stated in a 2025 article that at least six municipalities in the U.S. restrict pit bull ownership. This includes Council Bluffs, Iowa; Prince George's County, Maryland; Melvindale, Michigan; Kearny, Missouri; Sparta, Tennessee; and Miami, Florida.
As for Bernthal, he attributed the pit bull rep to "a lot of knuckleheads" who "unfortunately are attracted to that breed of dog."
"To me, when I see some wannabe gangster getting pulled down Venice Beach by his pit bull, and I'm like, 'You feed that f**ker, and he's pulling you?'" Bernthal exclaimed. "To me that's not manly or strong at all. I think you gotta train your dogs."
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Sheriff unloads on dog owner accused of letting 'vicious' animals maul neighbor to death, faking heart attack to avoid jail
A Florida woman has been arrested after authorities said her two dogs fatally mauled a neighbor. There had reportedly been over a dozen complaints about the dogs before the fatal dog attack.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey announced the arrest of 29-year-old Linda Cutler at a recent press conference. Cutler was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of 50-year-old Jodi Cowan, who reportedly was mauled to death by Cutler's dogs.
'We have a complete cultural meltdown where everybody's got these big pit bulls, and nobody's taking proper care of them.'
Judge David Koenig initially considered a $250,000 bond for Cutler but ultimately revoked it due to a prior arrest, ordering her to remain in jail, WKMG-TV reported.
Brevard County jail records show Cutler was previously charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, and failure to appear.
In the early morning hours of May 19, Cowan was walking her own dog in her neighborhood in Cocoa.
Ivey said that's when Cutler's dogs climbed over a fence and "brutally" attacked Cowan.
"The dogs identified as Max and Mako climbed over the owner's fence and began to brutally attack and maul Cowan, forcing her to the ground, viciously attacking her, and eventually dragging her across the ground for quite some distance," Ivey said during the press conference.
Ivey stated that a neighbor's surveillance camera caught the dogs charging toward Cowan before attacking her.
As Blaze News previously reported, Cowan's partner of 25 years discovered her in a pool of blood as the dogs continued to try to drag her away.
Cowan's partner, Donnell Smith, told WESH-TV he left his home to help a neighbor around 1 a.m., and Cowan and her dog were gone when he returned.
Smith said he heard a faint cry for help and then witnessed Cowan being dragged away by the animals.
"I saw the silhouette of the two dogs dragging my wife down the road, off into the grass in front of the truck down there," a tearful Smith explained.
Smith recalled, "I pulled my knife out, you know, just swinging [it with] one hand and holding the blood with the other, trying to stop her from bleeding."
"It was brutal. Seeing the same woman I've loved for the last 30 years, 25 years just ripped apart by two animals was just ... I'll never get that image out of my mind," Smith noted.
Smith called 911, and Cowan was transported to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries about four hours later, according to Sheriff Ivey.
Smith believes his wife may have lost her life because she was attempting to rescue her own dog.
"They must have been chasing our little dog, and she went to save her little dog, to get him," Smith said. "And then they switched their attention to her when she tried to get them off our little dog."
Smith told WESH that he had previously alerted the sheriff's office about Cutler's dogs.
"I told them that she had those two pits that get out all the time and run the neighborhood and have been aggressive toward people, and they didn't do anything about it," Smith stated. "My wife lost her life because of it."
WESH-TV reported that there were "more than a dozen calls made to animal control" regarding complaints about Cutler's dogs dating back to 2024.
Cutler was issued four citations after two calls about dog bites in January and February 2024, according to WESH.
A complaint in 2025 claimed the dogs killed an outdoor cat.
WESH reported that one of the dogs bit someone on April 14, 2026, and the individual was taken to an emergency room.
Other calls focused on Cutler's dogs running loose in the neighborhood.
WKMG-TV reported that the earlier incidents were not about the two dogs involved in the deadly mauling.
"It's also important to note that during the early calls from 2024 through November of '25, the calls at Cutler’s residence were related to other dogs, as the two dogs involved in this attack were puppies back then," Ivey stated.
A neighbor told WESH, "We have a complete cultural meltdown where everybody's got these big pit bulls, and nobody's taking proper care of them."
The neighbor added, "It is constant that dogs are running loose, and I understand that dogs are property, and the county is limited on what they can do, but a lady is dead."
Ivey said, "Linda Cutler had specific and documented knowledge that her dogs repeatedly got out of her yard and additional knowledge that her dogs were attacking humans and had actually bitten someone."
Ivey said Cutler "took minimal action to prevent her dogs from getting out of her yard."
During the investigation, agents took a sworn statement from Cutler, who admitted that her dogs "routinely" escaped her yard and had to "repeatedly" return to her home, according to Ivey.
Sheriff Ivey said that Cutler confessed that she knew that one of her dogs previously had bitten another person, and her dogs were becoming "more and more aggressive, even toward her."
Cutler claimed that she installed an additional fence, but knew there were holes through which her dogs escaped the yard, the sheriff said.
Ivey added that Cutler was staying at a beachfront hotel when officers with the Melbourne Police Department arrested her on the manslaughter warrant while responding to a separate "disturbance" involving her and others at the hotel.
Ivey said of Cutler, "Oh, and to make matters worse, when she was taken into custody, she feigned having a heart attack, and had to be, by policy, transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation."
Sheriff Ivey is seen on video escorting Cutler into the Brevard County Jail, where he tells her, "Hope you enjoyed your time at the beach because you're not going to be going back."
Cutler replies, "What is the purpose of that?"
The sheriff fires back, "A woman is dead, and two dogs are about to be euthanized because of your uselessness."
The Brevard County Sheriff's Office said the dogs are expected to be euthanized.
When asked if Smith would ever forgive Cutler, he said, "I'll have to think about that one. I'm not vindictive towards her. I don’t want anything evil happening to her, but to forgive her is gonna take a little work."
The Melbourne Police Department and the Brevard County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News' requests for comment.
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I love my dogs, but I refuse to spend more money on their dinner than on mine
I love dogs. I have two: a pug and a Jack Russell. They run my house like they pay the mortgage.
The pug snores like a dying lawn mower and produces gas that has, on numerous occasions, cleared a room of human beings. The Jack Russell stares at the mailman the way Manson stared at juries. They're a handful, but they are mine. So please know that what follows comes from a co-conspirator, not a critic.
Pet humanization is one of the most reliable consumer trends of the past two decades: recession-resistant and demographically expanding.
Golden Child is the latest entrant in America's premium pet food gold rush, a venture-backed, direct-to-consumer brand that thinks your dog should be treated like royalty. It pitches itself as a wellness system for canines, and that’s exactly what it is. There are recipes and drizzles. There is talk of amino acids and gut flora, the kind of language once reserved for humans recovering from something serious. There are five-star meal plans at $90 a month.
The dogs in question, meanwhile, eat their own vomit when no one is looking.
Dog's life
The product is fine. The cultural moment producing it is the problem. Americans now spend roughly $158 billion a year on their pets (the combined GDP of Azerbaijan and Bolivia). A meaningful slice of that goes to food alone, and the premium tier keeps climbing while regular grocery budgets shrink. Households that order DoorDash four nights a week and that haven't touched a vegetable since a wedding in 2022 are reading ingredient labels on dog food the way oncologists read blood panels. The Labrador eats grass-fed bison sourced from a single Montana ranch. The owner eats a frozen burrito over the sink.
A Pew survey found that 51% of dog owners consider their pet as much a part of the family as a human member. Estate lawyers, one assumes, have noticed. Wills are being rewritten. Somewhere, a daughter is being cut for a dachshund.
The figure climbs even higher among Millennials and Gen Zers, who are having fewer kids, getting married less, and writing personal essays in which their dogs appear as therapists, life partners, and the last remaining reason to get out of bed. For many, a labradoodle has assumed the role of romantic partner, co-parent, and emergency contact. There is a real and growing market of people who tell pollsters they would rather come home to a dog than a spouse.
RELATED: Modern pet ownership is a mental illness
Petting zoo
To some, this looks like harmless eccentricity. It is, in fact, the visible surface of a deeper rearrangement. A generation of people are pouring into their pets the care and attention they cannot seem to direct at themselves or at one another. The dog gets the supplements. The dog gets the bone-broth topper. The dog gets the orthopedic bed engineered by a former Tesla designer. The owner, meanwhile, hasn’t seen a primary care doctor in four years and sleeps on a mattress purchased during the Obama administration.
Wellness, as a cultural product, has performed a strange migration. It started as a self-improvement promise, mutated into an aesthetic, and has now landed on the family pet, where it can be practiced without the burden of self-discipline.
Buying Golden Child is easier than cooking dinner. Researching your dog's microbiome is more pleasant than confronting your own. The dog cannot push back, cannot disappoint you, cannot leave. Devotion flows in one direction and returns as tail wags. It is the most effortless emotional transaction available in modern American life.
To be clear, companies like Atomic (the venture studio behind Golden Child) aren’t villains. They’re simply responding rationally to a market that has decided dogs are the last acceptable recipients of unconditional generosity.
Pet humanization is one of the most reliable consumer trends of the past two decades: recession-resistant, demographically expanding, and immune to the kind of guilt that suppresses other luxury spending. A Birkin invites judgment. A supplement regimen for your dog's joints invites applause.
Paw patrol
Zoom out, and the absurdity compounds. American life expectancy fell during the pandemic and has barely recovered. Roughly half of adults take a daily prescription medication. Anti-anxiety drug use among young adults has risen sharply in recent years. One-third of Americans now report what can only be described as an existential crisis. More and more are self-medicating — with alcohol, with drugs, with whatever is closest.
The same population producing these numbers is the population debating whether the schnauzer should be on a raw or gently cooked diet. The schnauzer, for the record, would devour a sock, cough it up, and devour it again.
Of course dogs deserve to be treated well. They should be cared for, fed properly, and protected. But people spending more on their pets than on themselves or the people around them ought to pause and reconsider.
Loving animals well is a real and decent thing, and dogs deserve a great deal of what they receive. The discomfort lies elsewhere. Somewhere along the way, caring for a dog became a substitute for the far less photogenic work of caring for ourselves and each other.
Ladies, Don’t Get A Big Dog That You Can’t Control
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It's not about dogs. It's about Islam forcing Americans to change our habits and our way of life in order to accommodate Muslims.Modern pet ownership is a mental illness
And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Man’s relationship with animals has been complicated for thousands of years. From the beginning of time, they have been ours to rule over — for better or worse. Their care has been a sacred responsibility.
What once would have warranted a CPS call is now accepted, even encouraged. Young children crawl where animal feces and urine collect.
Our ancestors offered the best animals as burnt sacrifices. Those who forgot God worshipped the animals instead. We worked alongside them, traveled with them, and fought wars on their backs. We domesticated them for food and clothing. The decent among us treated them kindly and with gratitude.
We have loved animals. We have also misused them for our own needs and amusement.
Friend-zoned
Animals have long been man’s companions. But the idea that an animal is “man’s best friend” did not emerge until the 18th century — and even then, those loyal hunting companions only loosely resembled the modern leashed house pet.
There has always been a role for animals alongside the impaired, the grieving, the lonely, or the emotionally suffering. But such arrangements were not the norm. Animals lived near men because they were valuable. Children played with them outdoors. Sometimes barns were attached to houses. But no decent family would have subjected their children to living in the same space as animals — except in rare cases when an animal was sick and required special care.
What once would have warranted a CPS call is now accepted, even encouraged. Young children crawl where animal feces and urine collect, and no one blinks. Disabilities are suddenly ubiquitous, and everyone feels entitled to an emotional-support companion, regardless of whether it is good for the animal — or their children.
Bred for comfort
These animals we call man’s “best friends” are hardly recognizable as anything God created. We have bred them to suit our desires. We have domesticated wild creatures and enslaved them. They depend on us completely, even as we use them to satisfy our own emotional needs. We have fashioned a kind of Frankenstein for our own comfort, without counting the cost: the animals we have tampered with and overbred, now wandering the streets, feral and forgotten.
As Christians called to be good stewards of all God has given us, we must ask whether we have gone too far. Have we taken advantage of animals under the guise of love?
We excuse this abuse with self-serving justifications. They like it, we say of pets locked inside, barking or scratching at doors—as if anything enjoys being caged, leashed, or confined for another’s benefit. Sometimes we hoard them and claim it is love. We argue, My pet teaches me responsibility and routine. But pets for the sake of learning responsibility are for children. Adults should turn to prayer for discipline. We say, My pet is the only thing that loves me unconditionally.
Tied down
Pet ownership is a sign of mental illness. Instead of seeking help, we entrap animals.
We claim pets make us responsible adults, yet they prevent us from serving others. We cannot travel, volunteer, or do missionary work because of them. They keep us from weddings, baby showers, and funerals. They make us less generous, less available, less free.
The gospel goes unpreached for the sake of man’s best friend.
But what has been done cannot easily be undone. We cannot simply turn pets loose. If taking them was a mistake, abandoning them would be another.
This is not the first time humanity has abused its authority over animals. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors domesticated pigeons — first for food, then as messengers. When technology made them unnecessary, those loyal companions became pests. What we created, we came to despise once it no longer served us.
No easy answers
Rather than continuing this cycle of domesticating and discarding animals, we should pause and ask what we are doing. Are we abusing our God-given authority? How can we make amends without causing further harm? I have no easy answers — only a denunciation of the modern pet industry.
In the meantime, we should not condone animal hoarding. We should reach out to the lonely in our communities instead of outsourcing compassion to pets. And those with unruly animals should make them tolerable, rather than subjecting the rest of us to their filth, noise, and danger. Just as a young man becomes obnoxious without purpose, so do animals confined without work.
We must find a humane way to let pets return to being animals. It would be better for them — and for us.
Beloved elderly fire department member mauled to death by pack of pit bull-mix dogs; owner charged with murder, animal abuse
An elderly fire department member was mauled to death by a pack of dogs in North Carolina, according to authorities. Now a dog owner has been charged with murder, and the pit bull-mixes involved in the dog attack reportedly have been euthanized.
The Davidson County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that deputies were dispatched to a residence around 7:43 p.m. Nov. 18.
'He was deeply loved, and his absence has left a pain that words cannot fully express.'
Deputies discovered 73-year-old Michael Bodenheimer "lying deceased in the front yard of the residence."
Police said Bodenheimer had "sustained severe injuries and was beyond the possibility of life-saving intervention."
"Preliminary findings at the scene indicated that his injuries were consistent with an attack by a large pack of canines," the sheriff's office stated.
Officers tracked down a "pack of aggressive canines" at a property nearby, and members of the Davidson County Animal Control captured 17 dogs, identified as "pit bull-mixed breeds."
The animals were euthanized, and necropsies were conducted.
According to WBTV-TV, officers claimed that 56-year-old owner Elaina Bryant of Thomasville let the dogs run loose at night, and they "lived in feces without food." Citing the arrest warrant, the station added that the dogs were underweight and had not received vaccinations or veterinary care.
The indictment alleges the dogs were left without fresh water and adequate shelter.
WBTV reported that there was an enclosure "infested with fleas and vermin and covered in excrement." Authorities alleged that the enclosure had not been cleaned in weeks or months, according to the indictment.
Investigators described the dogs as living in "conditions of squalor and starvation," the indictment said.
An autopsy conducted on Bodenheimer confirmed that he died as a result of injuries sustained in the brutal dog mauling, according to police.
Detectives determined that Bryant owned the dogs involved in the fatal attack. Citing court documents, the Charlotte Observer reported that Bryant lives about half a mile west of Bodenheimer’s home.
The sheriff's office investigation concluded that Bryant was "grossly negligent in the care and control of the animals."
Bryant was arrested Dec. 17, and a Davidson County Grand Jury indicted her on one count of second-degree murder and 17 counts of felony animal abuse, WYMY-TV reported.
Bryant is being detained at the Davidson County Detention Center on a $500,000 secured bond set by a Davidson County Superior Court judge.
Her next court date is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2026, in Davidson County Superior Court.
Bodenheimer's family said in a statement to WYFF-TV, "Our family is heartbroken by the loss of our father. He was deeply loved, and his absence has left a pain that words cannot fully express."
The family said that they were aware of the charges filed against Bryant.
"We have full confidence in the legal process and will allow it to move forward without further comment," the family said.
"Our focus remains on honoring our father’s life, his values, and the love he shared with those around him," the statement read. "We appreciate the support, prayers, and kindness that have been extended to our family during this incredibly difficult time."
Bodenheimer's obituary read, "Mike had a generous spirit and faithfully served his community by volunteering with the Fair Grove Fire Department and Friends Disaster Service."
The fire department said in a statement:
Mike was a long-time member of the Fair Grove Fire Department serving the Fair Grove community for many years. This particular incident involving one of our own has hit the department pretty hard since several of our current members served with him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends, as well as our own members.
The investigation is ongoing.
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Oprah and The Rock are facing MAJOR BACKLASH over THIS