Parents for Dog Bite Awareness

How Misinformation and Denial Claimed Zoey Hawkins’ Life

🌟 𝗔𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗹 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗭𝗼𝗲𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝘄𝗸𝗶𝗻𝘀 🌟

#dogbiteawareness 🐾💔

On September 4, 2024, 4yo Zoey (Bennett) Hawkins was killed by her family’s pit bull in Visalia, CA. She had just finished swimming and was moments away from being wrapped in a towel when the dog she’d lived with for over two years suddenly and violently attacked. It latched onto her armpit, inflicting fatal injuries.

Zoey’s death is heartbreaking beyond words and it’s also a chilling reminder of a growing and deadly problem: the power of pitbull propaganda on social media.

Zoey’s own father, whose Facebook profile still features pit bulls and who has shared numerous pro pit talking points, had been steeped in the myths. We’ve all heard them chanted online:

“It’s how you raise them.”

“Our dog is great with kids.”

“They’d never hurt their family.”

These slogans aren’t harmless opinions. They are carefully engineered narratives spread by breed advocates to override common sense safety measures and suppress warning signs. 

They encourage cognitively vulnerable parents, often loving, trusting, and unsuspecting, to ignore the well documented risk factors of powerful, fighting breed dogs.

The result? Life or death parenting decisions made under the influence of false reassurance. Decisions that leave children like Zoey unprotected.

Pit bulls do not “turn” because of bad owners, neglect, or abuse, they kill because they were selectively bred for explosive, sustained attacks. 

Fearlessness, unpredictability, and the capacity to inflict catastrophic damage are features, not flaws, of the breed’s genetic design.

Zoey’s family is now living every parent’s nightmare. Two infant siblings will grow up without their big sister. And the same online forces that comforted this family into believing their dog was safe are still actively spreading the same myths that will cost more children their lives.

For Zoey. 

For every child at risk. 

We must tell the truth about this public safety crisis and break the cycle of deadly misinformation.

🕊️ Rest in peace, sweet Zoey. We will keep fighting until every child is safe. 

#parentsfordogbiteawareness #wakeup #protectkids #crisis #JusticeForZoey #PublicSafetyMatters 🐾