Rabid defenders of pit bulls are spiritually blind — and ignoring the tragic stats
The never-ending pit bull debate has been reignited online after an Ohio infant was tragically killed by one of her family’s three pit bulls — who spent its life as a beloved family pet.
“I will never understand why!!!” mother Mackenzie Copley wrote in a Facebook post, where she posted photos of her 7-month-old daughter cuddling with the family dogs. “I am so lost and broken. This was the same dog who was side by side with my baby every single day,” she added.
While heartbroken for the family, Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” believes this situation could have been avoided.
“I don’t think that they should be legal,” she says. “I am tired of talking about these stories, where another baby or another toddler dies because a family allowed what they mistakenly call their nanny dog to lay down next to their child, to play with their child, and that child is mauled to death.”
“I am tired of us being a Romans 1 people, that we serve the creature rather than the creator, and so we have disordered affections and disordered priorities where we feel more of an inclination to defend a certain breed of dog than we do to defend human life,” she continues.
Stuckey believes it’s a “spiritual issue,” and those who defend the pit bulls never express sympathy for the child hurt or killed, because they’re suffering from “spiritual blindness.”
“No sympathy for that, just immediate, almost like a pit bull, rapidly defending this very, on average, aggressive breed,” she says. “Every time that you push the propaganda that these dogs are safe, that they’re OK around children, that they’re nanny dogs, someone is listening to that, and they are internalizing that lie.”
Pit bulls were originally bred for bull baiting in England, primarily between the 16th and 19th centuries. A popular blood sport at the time, bull baiting consisted of these dogs being set loose on a tethered bull, where the goal was to immobilize it by biting and holding its nose or face and not letting go — until the bull was dead.
“And you think your toddler can stand a chance against that? It can’t,” Stuckey says.
And it’s not just the history of the animal that’s concerning. It's the undeniable stat of which breed is reported to be the most likely to attack.
According to Dogsbite.com, from 2010 to October 2023, of the 478 fatal dog bites in the United States, 196 came from pit bulls — which is 60%.
“Despite making up a very small part of the dog population, I think it’s like 6% of the dog population they account for,” Stuckey says. Dogsbite.com also reports that pit bulls are 2.5 times more likely to bite in multiple anatomical locations than other breeds.
Pit bull terriers are 48% more likely to attack without provocation than other breeds, and their attacks have higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than attacks by other breeds.
“Honestly, I could have a section in my book ‘Toxic Empathy’ about pit bull apologists. It’s like the same thing. It is showing more empathy for a dog than it is for the victims of their attacks. And toxic empathy, it blinds you to reality and morality,” Stuckey says, adding, “That is certainly the case when it comes to pit bulls.”
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