Bailing Out Benji was recently mentioned in a scathing and extremely slanted editorial regarding rescues who purchase dogs from puppy mill auctions.
The author of this article, Kim Kavin, attempted to contact Bailing Out Benji and our founder several times in preparation for the article and all of her requests were denied. This is because her connection from auctions to our nonprofit was nonexistent and Kavin wanted us to issue a formal statement against one of our own volunteers who went on behalf of other rescues in the Midwest to purchase retired breeding dogs at auction. We will never make a statement regarding the purchasing habits of another rescue just because we happen to share the same volunteers. Note: In the article Kavin did not outright say Bailing Out Benji is buying dogs, because she has no proof of that happening. She merely stated that one of our team leaders purchased dogs in previous years, while also volunteering for us. Sadly, Kavin has been harassing those very rescues for months as well, trying to get them to make a statement about their past purchases at auction through our shared volunteer but she chose not to mention them. The story wouldn’t have been as “shocking” had Kavin reported the truth. Kavin even went as far as calling the mother of our volunteer in order to get a statement. The harassment that this one volunteer has received over the last few weeks by Kavin is shameful.
Kavin falsely implied that Bailing Out Benji purchases dogs from auctions and has done so in recent years. This is simply not true. Since 2014 Bailing Out Benji has been contacted on a regular basis by breeders who wish to surrender their dogs, as opposed to killing them. We do not reimburse the breeders for these dogs. You can see the photos of the survivors all over our social media accounts as soon as we rescue them, and all funds raised for the dogs go straight to paying for their vet care, which can be backed up by our amazing rescue partners who receive those donations. Very rarely, if ever, do we ask for funds to save the dogs before they are in our care. You do not see us begging for money to buy/rescue dogs or obtaining “a river of rescue donations” flowing in, as Kavin reported in her article. Because of the false claims Kavin made regarding our nonprofit with no proof, we question the integrity of the rest of her article.
Bailing Out Benji has small volunteer teams in 20 states with around 100 active volunteers total. Our volunteers come to Bailing Out Benji because they love animals and want to create positive change in this world. We are proud of the fact that our team leaders and volunteers also volunteer, foster, adopt and donate to other rescue organizations and we won’t ever tell them that they cannot. We firmly believe that the animals benefit the most when groups work together for the dogs. We stand by our volunteers and all that they do to help the animals in their communities.
We are a team.
We are a family.
Thank you to all of those who have supported us in the past and will continue to do so.
– Team Bailing Out Benji
For any questions, please contact us directly at bailingoutbenji@gmail.com