3-year-old girl disfigured in NJ pit bull attack needs help

Here’s another story where owners of pit bulls will get immediately defensive and claim it’s never the dog; it’s always the owner.

Whatever is to blame, is it true that pit bulls are dangerous? Here are the facts.

Fact: Pit bulls do not bite more often than other dogs. Cocker Spaniels actually bite more.

Fact: The bite force of a pit bull is not the strongest of any dog.

Fact: There’s no such thing as a "pit bull" per se. The four breeds that fit under the pit bull category are the American pit bull terrier, the Staffordshire bull terrier, the American Staffordshire terrier, and the American bully.

Also fact: This umbrella category known as pit bulls by far kills more people than any other breed.

It could have happened again in Vernon, NJ. On September 20 a couple had their three-year-old at a friend’s home where their pit bull attacked the girl. The dog was tenacious, biting the girl over and over.

The man and woman trying desperately to save their daughter were also hurt. The girl was so severely injured she had to be airlifted to Morristown Medical Center.

Want to see how much damage this category of dog can do? The woman who started a GoFundMe page for the family to deal with the mounting medical bills put this side-by-side picture. One of the girl on a normal day next to one of how the girl ended up.

Her injuries were horrific. Little Evie has multiple lacerations. A collapsed lung. Her nose is gone. She also lost one ear in the dog attack. She needs extensive facial reconstruction and has been kept on sedatives to prevent her from trying to touch her face and the tubes in her body. It’s truly a tragic story.

There’s more information here on the GoFundMe page itself about how the girl is doing and what the family is dealing with. They need help. The woman who started the page, a girlfriend of little Evie’s uncle, says if you can’t donate then sharing on social media would be very helpful.

The girl is lucky to even be alive. I understand people who own a pit bull-type breed never think it will be their dog. But the numbers speak volumes. While these types of dogs don’t bite the most, when they do they kill the most.

From dogbitelaw.com: “From 2009 to 2018, pit bulls killed or maimed 3,569 people in the USA and Canada. They killed over 80% of Americans who are killed by dogs.”

It’s funny to me that so many put bull owners say aggression is not a trait bred into pit bulls yet name them as if that’s exactly what drew them to the dog. From rover.com, the top 10 names for male pit bulls:

10 — Thor
9 — Jax
8 — Buddy
7 — Apollo
6 — Duke
5 — Diesel
4 — Ace
3 — Rocky
2 — Blue
1 — Zeus

Thor? Duke? Diesel? Rocky? Not exactly names you think of for sweet cuddlebugs now, are they?

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.