Anytime anyone looks into Benji's big brown eyes, Joe wanted them to see the kind of unconditional love they can find at their own local shelter. So he launched the search in the fall of 2001 that took him from one end of the country to the other and consumed three and a half months, ultimately leading to the adoption of three dogs, one from a shelter in Mississippi, one from a shelter in Los Angeles, and one from a shelter in Chicago.
Everywhere they went, Joe dragged media out to the shelters, and the publicity that followed always lead to a rise in adoption levels. Local and network television, radio and newspapers covered the search, as did ABC's Primetime Thursday and Good Morning America, generating more than one billion media exposures for the efforts of shelters and rescue groups all across the nation. The new Benji's home shelter in Gulfport, Mississippi, had the largest month in their history the month after Benji was adopted and, in fact, completely emptied the shelter.
The bad news was that a couple of months later, once Benji and the media exposure were gone, it was back to adoptions as usual. This lead Camp to begin the formation of Benji's Buddies, an exciting new program that will, with corporate support, bring continuous media exposure to the problem of finding more homes for more homeless pets, and raise adoption levels continuously throughout the year.
After two weeks of "Benji Boot Camp," the floppy-eared pup adopted from Gulfport, Mississippi won out. The dog adopted in Chicago (Lizard Tongue) became the comic relief in the new movie; and the dog adopted from the Los Angeles shelter became an understudy. Benji and Lizard Tongue live with Joe and his family, and the Los Angeles adoptee lived with the film's other producer, Margaret Loesch, until he recently died of congestive heart failure.
Since her adoption, Benji has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for shelters and adoption groups all across the country by participating in benefit galas and and all sorts of fund raisers.
And now Joe and Kathleen have leaped headlong into the horse wold and found that it is in need of an extreme makeover. Which prompted his new book The Soul of a Horse.
Also see:
Joe, Benji & Adoption
The Search for Benji
Meet Joe Camp
The Soul of a Horse: Life Lessons from the Herd
Joe Camp: Speaker
Joe Camp: Author
Joe Camp: Film Writer/Director
Read about Joe's Presentations for Shelter Benefits and Fund-raisers
See Photos and Read about Recent Presentations
Read Priase for Joe & Benji Presentations. See client list
To book Joe click here!
Benji Raises $100,000 for Jackson Shelter
Read About Benji's Buddies Foundation
Read about Joe's Presentations for Shelter Benefits and Fund-raisers
Shelters and Rescue Groups!
Buy Benji Videos and Books in bulk at Discount Prices
to Sell at your Shelter and at Fund Raisers
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