Spencer Pratt likens mothers who kill children to dangerous dogs
Reality star Spencer Pratt sparked controversy after comparing mothers who kill their children to a dangerous pit bull that society should "exterminate," posting the remarks on X in response to a New York court case. Dimone Fleming, 22 at the time, was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect after killing her two young sons in November 2022, with prosecutors and her defence lawyer agreeing she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. The case has drawn comparisons to the high-profile trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy, who is using the same defence over the deaths of her three children, and has fuelled wider debate about mental illness and criminal responsibility.
Fleming was accused of stabbing her sons, three-year-old Daishawn and 11-month-old Octavius, before submerging them in a bathtub at the Bronx shelter where the family lived. A psychiatrist who examined her found she had been "grossly psychotic," hallucinating and believing the world was ending, while defence doctors said she believed her actions would "protect or cleanse" her children. Postpartum psychosis affects roughly one to two in every 1,000 women after childbirth, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Pratt wrote that while there was "no judgment" behind such acts, those responsible "cannot be trusted" and should be "locked away forever," prompting backlash for likening mentally ill mothers to animals.
- Spencer Pratt compared child-killing mothers to a pit bull needing "extermination"
- Comments followed Dimone Fleming's not-guilty verdict over postpartum psychosis
- Case echoes Lindsay Clancy's ongoing trial using the same defence
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Postpartum psychosis is a rare but serious mental illness that can develop after childbirth, causing hallucinations, delusions and a loss of touch with reality; it affects roughly one to two in every 1,000 new mothers. It has featured in several recent criminal cases in the US, where mothers who have killed their children have argued they were not responsible for their actions because of the condition, raising difficult questions about how the justice system should treat crimes committed during severe mental illness.
Dimone Fleming is one such case, a young mother in New York who killed her two sons in 2022 and was found not guilty by reason of mental illness after doctors on both sides agreed she had been severely psychotic at the time. Her case has been discussed alongside that of Lindsay Clancy in Massachusetts, whose trial over the deaths of her three children is using a similar defence, and together they have intensified public debate about mental illness, motherhood and criminal responsibility.
Spencer Pratt is a reality television personality best known from the show The Hills, who has a large social media following and often shares opinions on current events. His comments on this case reflect a broader, often heated public reaction to these stories, in which some people argue such acts warrant no leniency regardless of mental state, while others stress the medical evidence of psychosis, making the topic a flashpoint for wider disagreement about mental illness and punishment.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Some argue that regardless of the medical explanation, the overriding priority must be protecting future children and the public, and that a parent who has killed once, whatever the cause, has demonstrated a level of risk society cannot respectfully ignore. On this view, framing dangerousness in stark terms, however blunt or uncomfortable, is a legitimate way of insisting that empathy for an illness should not translate into leniency that could endanger others. Advocates of this position often point to grieving families and public safety as reasons to favour permanent, unambiguous separation over conditional release, even where a court finds no criminal culpability.
The case against
Others contend that likening mentally ill mothers to dangerous animals dehumanises women suffering from a recognised, treatable psychiatric condition and undermines decades of medical and legal understanding that postpartum psychosis can entirely remove a person's grasp on reality. They argue that the insanity defence exists precisely to distinguish moral blame from illness, and that equating sufferers with beasts to be "exterminated" risks discouraging new mothers from disclosing symptoms or seeking help for fear of being seen as monstrous rather than unwell. For them, compassion and rigorous psychiatric treatment, not punitive rhetoric, are the responsible response to a rare but devastating condition.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Spencer Pratt compares moms who kill their kids to an aggressive pit bull society should ‘exterminate’”.