Benji and Joe Camp take their show on the road to HELP SHELTERS

Cher. . . Prince. . . Madonna -- only a select handful of celebrities are recognized the world over by their given names. So it’s amazing that 30 years after creating and making his first movie, the beloved moniker “Benji” still garners instant recognition wherever the canine goes.

Having recently released a fourth movie, Benji Off the Leash, on DVD, these days Benji creator and director Joe Camp is using Benji’s fame to bring awareness to pet adoption through shelters and rescue groups. He and the latest Benji travel to shelters throughout the U.S., drawing media attention and scores of potential adoptive “parents” to the facilities.

“Last week we were at Tails Humane Society in DeKalb, Illinois, just outside of Chicago,” explains a clearly pleased Joe. “They came within two dogs of emptying the shelter after Saturday, and they adopted out about half of their cats. They were going to bring dogs in from other local shelters for Sunday.”

For Joe, promoting the case of adoption brings the Benji story full circle. The original Benji came from the Burbank Animal Shelter and lived with trainer Frank Inn. Joe finally hooked up with Frank after many frustrating interviews with other trainers, who didn’t understand Joe’s revolutionary concept for the first film.

“When I was making the first Benji, and I was looking for a trainer, everyone said, ‘What do you mean, you want me to let the dog relax?’ They didn’t want to be out of control of the dog. Frank approached everything out of the box. He was not an obedience trainer. He was not a show trainer. He was not an A to B trainer like most movie people. Frankie got his first dog when he was in a wheelchair and he began training this dog to do things for him that he couldn’t do for himself. He trained through comprehension, compassion and vocabulary.”

When it came time to make Benji Off the Leash, Joe saw an opportunity to once again make a difference. “The first three Benjis lived with Frankie (who died in 2002). Since we were starting fresh, it occurred to me that it would be a really worthwhile mission to go back to the shelters. So that when someone looks into those big brown eyes on screen and they’re seeing the compassion and smarts and unconditional love, they’ll go to their own local shelter to adopt.”

The search for Benji took Joe across the country as he tried to find a dog with the right appearance and temperament. The adventure proved a great learning experience. “We saw some awful places,” says Joe. “Others are wonderful. The place we got Shaggy (Benji’s co-star in Benji Off the Leash) – Animal Care and Control in Chicago – is quite pleasant and clean for a city-run facility. So it can be done, but it has to start within the confines of the system and the facility itself. If you can clean up the facilities and put budget towards advertising, then you can compete with the places selling dogs from puppy mills. For every dog adopted from a shelter, one is not born at a puppy mill. But you need to change people’s perception of the shelter experience.”