Arthur Benjamin clearly remembers the moment he knew how he was going to rescue dogs.

He was sitting on the couch of his Sandy home with Buddy, a 5-pound white poodle, watching news coverage of Hurricane Katrina. His wife had died of breast cancer less than a year earlier, leaving him the little dog, whom she had loved.

It was then Benjamin saw a clip of a bus full of people pulling away from the wrecked city. A small white terrier chased the bus, barking as if to say, "Don't leave me."

"I looked at Buddy and said, 'What would your mom do?'" Benjamin said. "What would you want to do about this?"

The successful businessman helped send a team to New Orleans to take care of the animals left behind. It was one of the first of many rescue missions his new nonprofit organization, American Dog Rescue, would support. Since then, the organization has donated more than $1 million toward helping animals and recently partnered with another group, Nowzad Dogs, to help rescue dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The partnership also will help reunite American servicemen and women with dogs that became their companions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Officially, military men and women are not supposed to have pets, but unofficially they sometimes end up befriending local homeless dogs, Benjamin said. The dogs provide emotional support.

"It's very meaningful to soldiers," he said.

The dogs become socialized, but when the servicemen and women leave, they are left alone again to fend for themselves. He said in those countries, people don't typically keep dogs as pets in their homes.

American Dog Rescue and Nowzad, which rescues stray and abandoned animals in Iraq and Afghanistan, now will work together to bring those dogs back to the United States so they can be with the military men and women they served. Benjamin said the organizations plan to start by bringing 10 dogs to the United states to reunite with soldiers this month for Veterans Day.

It will be a win for the dogs and soldiers, Benjamin said, both of whom hold a special place in his heart. Benjamin, who lost a close friend in Vietnam, has a deep respect for America's military men and women.

"This is just my way of remembering a dear old friend who lost his life in Vietnam ... and taking care of some dogs that will have a better life than if they had been left there," Benjamin said.

This latest endeavor is, in many ways, an extension of the work he has been doing in Utah and across the nation for years.

Benjamin is a busy man. He lives and works in Sandy, Dallas and Florida though he is originally from New York. He sits on numerous boards; helped start The Living Planet Aquarium with his late wife Gail; is involved with development and growth of four groups of largely technical, private postsecondary schools; and is chairman and CEO of a group of weight loss centers in Florida. He is the former CEO and chairman of Datamark, Inc., in Salt Lake City.

But he makes time for his passions, including helping animals.

"There's no other relationship that I know to be completely unbridled, unconditional love other than the love of a dog for a human being," Benjamin said recently from his Sandy home. He no longer spends most of his time in Sandy, living mainly in Florida, but his work to help animals in Utah continues.

Over the years, American Dog Rescue has worked with the Humane Society of Utah, Salt Lake County Animal Services and the Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, along with other organizations around the country. Benjamin has donated money and time.

April Harris, associate director of Salt Lake County Animal Services, said American Dog Rescue, among other things, paid last year for animal services to hire a consultant who helped guide it toward improvements. Euthanasia rates were down significantly at the shelter in 2010, and she said the it has also, thanks to the consultant, helped return far more stray animals to their homes, without bringing them to the shelter, this year.

Carl Arky, communications director for the Humane Society of Utah in Murray, said Benjamin's contributions help the society pay to take care of the 11,000 animals it takes in every year.

"You can just tell how much this means to him," Arky said. "It's not just another cause to him. This is something vitally important. He's not just investing his money, he's investing his emotion, his time. His heart and soul is in this, and he really cares about the animals."

lschencker@sltrib.com —

How to help

I To learn more about American Dog Rescue or contribute, go to http://www.americandogrescue.org or call 888-262-4753. Donations can be mailed to 381 Casa Linda Plaza, Ste. 420, Dallas, TX 75218-3423.