UPDATE 1/4/14 – Bennett has removed the video showing his fake therapy dogs interacting with a child from public viewing private. Here’s a screenshot of the video in case you didn’t see it.
Image from Seattle DogSpot.
The story about Brett Bennett and his Rottweilers is getting more ominous.
Brett Bennett ‘s video of his dog Brutus grieving over his dead companion Hank went viral. Now he’s asking people to give him $100,000 to buy a home. Image from Brett Bennett.
On January 24 he posted this video of his “crying Rottweiler” named Brutus laying his head on another Rottweiler named Hank who Bennett claimed died of a “broken heart” after he yelled at the dog a few days earlier.
Then, on January 30, he posted this fundraiser on indiegogo asking people to give him $100,000 to help him buy his “grieving rottweiler” a new home.
This was just one of a few fundraisers he issues to get money from people who watch his videos.
Here’s one from early January asking people to give him $5000 to “Help Hank and Brutus buy a new home.” He collected over $6300 on that one.
On Sunday I wrote an article that raised questions about the validity of Bennett’s fundraisers, provided a link to his criminal record (which includes a hit and run conviction), and showed a text message exchange in which he admitted he was scamming donors by by using the money they donated to pay off “legal matters” and “everyday bills.”
But yesterday I discovered one of his own videos (it is no longer on youtube) that shows he used a more devious method to use his dogs to raise money for himself – pretending they are therapy dogs at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Hank and Brutus Therapy Dog Rottweiler Twins visit a child in the waiting room at childrens Hospital, Seattle, WA. He was not feeling well and the Twins did their best to make him smile 🙂
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/he… Please don’t forget to donate…There is only one week left!”
Seattle Children’s Hospital does have a therapy dog program that it runs in conjunction with Pet Partners (formerly the Delta Society).
All dogs in the program MUST be screened and registered as therapy dogs through Pet Partners. Any dogs that aren’t registered with Pet Partners cannot be therapy dogs at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
A representative of Pet Partners told me yesterday that Brett Bennett did NOT register through Pet Partners.
Furthermore, Seattle Children’s volunteer program prohibits certain breeds, including Rottweilers, from being therapy dogs at the hospital.
Dogs in the program at also required to wear specific bandanas from therapy dog program. Bennett’s dogs had generic bandanas from either PetSmart or Petco.
I do want to clarify that Bennett never said he registered his therapy dogs through Pet Partners. He never said they are in the therapy dog program at Seattle Children’s either.
However, because they weren’t registered through Pet Partners, and because they are Rottweilers, Bennett did not have permission to bring his dogs in the hospital.
Apparently, that didn’t deter Bennett. He tried to bring Brutus and Hank inside Seattle Children’s twice last month.
People familiar with both confrontations said Bennett heatedly argued with staff who prevented him from entering the hospital. In at least one instance he flipped them the bird when he wasn’t allowed to enter.
After the second visit, Seattle Children’s security department sent him a letter warning him not to come back again.
He must have taken the video after his first visit because both dogs are in it. He claims that the dogs visited a “sick autistic deaf child” in a waiting room at Seattle Children’s.
Nothing in the video that indicates the child is autistic, deaf, or sick.
He could have been, but given what we know about Bennett now it’s not unreasonable to believe he made it up. After all, he tells a direct lie to the child’s mother in the video when he says, “They’re therapy dogs, we just don’t have an appointment. There’s a kid in chemotherapy up there and they said it’s a restricted area.”
And you can see in the video that Hank and Brutus don’t appear to act like therapy dogs. Trained therapy interact with patients and give their their full attention. Bennett’s dogs spend their time scrounging for crumbs of food on the floor and hardly interact with the boy.
This KING 5 video shows how a therapy dog and its handler interact with patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
The dog has an orange bandana clearly identifying it as a therapy dog with the hospital.
So why did Bennett try to get inside Seattle Children’s Hospital twice with his dogs? Was he just trying to help the kids, or was he just trying to get inside so he could shoot a video of the dogs with a sick child to tug at people’s heartstrings and get them to open their wallets?
Well, if he really wanted to use Hank and Brutus as therapy dogs he would have registered them through Pet Partners instead of attempting to sneak them inside twice. And he did conveniently include a link to one of his indiegogo fundraisers with the video.
I suppose Bennett’s dogs could have been trained as therapy dogs at some point during the 2 years he’s had them. He may very well have a soft spot in his heart for sick kids and wanted to use Brutus and Hank to help them. But his actions indicate he was mainly concerned about staging a touching video of his dogs with a sick child to raise money.
In closing, I’ll repeat an important message I used to close my last post:
DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO BRETT BENNETT!
So he tried to enter Seattle Children’s Hospital with his dogs a few days after he posted the “Crying Rottweiler” video? Did the hospital say how many Rottweilers he had when he tried to enter the second time? There are a lot of people who don’t believe Hank is really dead. It sounds like Seattle Children’s Hospital could clear that question up quickly.
Not really, unfortunately. They didn’t say how many dogs he had. He posted the video a few days after he said Hank died, so he could have filmed it during his visit in early January, but we don’t know for sure. If Hank isn’t dead we should find out soon – it’s not easy to keep a 150 pound dog under wraps, especially if you’re homeless.
I love these dogs I just know he has emotional support dogs for a reason THAT they are certified for. TO ALL THE HATERS: LEAVE HIM ALONE!
Oh dear god…….
This man is not only a scammer but is endangering people and dogs. He takes his dogs out occasionally with muzzles on because they need them! He takes video of himself going to parks, asking someone if their dog is friendly and then his rotties act aggressively!
https://www.youtube.com/user/brettvett1/videos
Yes, his videos are creepy. And did you notice that in all of them he usually approaches women with his dogs. Very creepy.
Additionally the man has a facebook that is mostly public in which he claims to be working for Google. Last time I checked the average salary at Google it was plenty to purchase a house or even rent an apartment. If you look back far enough, like say to July 17, 2014, you will see he has done this in the past with GoFundMe. Same general line, different dog. “Cloud is dead…This is truly a family emergency. Thank you for your donations… Thank you all so much. Love, Brett”
https://www.facebook.com/brett.bennett.549?fref=photo
Who knows what to believe with him?
last summer i was at childrens and brett tried to visit me cause im a patient and he told me security wouldnt let him up and they were very rude but i happen to know all the security there and they are very nice people now this was right after hank died and when my friend went down stairs to starbucks i told her to look for a guy with rottwielers and she said she saw him with 2 dogs and more recently brett keeps trying to get me to make a video with him and brutus cause im in a wheelchair
Thanks, I wrote about that incident, I think – https://www.seattledogspot.com/dog-adoption-rescue/scam-artist-claims-rottweilers-therapy-dogs-seattle-hospital-make-fundraising-video-sick-child/
If he keeps bothering you about making a video please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.
I am no longer interested in the name Brett Bennett. However, I am troubled by Seattle’s Children Hospital’s restriction on Rottweilers as visiting therapy dogs. THAT, is just wrong!!
I saw that he had posted how he is sick of the dogs and how they’re responsible for him being homeless and the next day Hank was dead
Nothing about this smells right.
And the guy has his own rottweiler page on fb where he’s the admin. He’s still acting as though he’s done nothing wrong and carrying on!! Take a look those ppl are still contributing believing his dogs are/were therapy dogs
Yet he is STILL denying it all, saying it was all made up by the people who hate him (according to him, everyone hates him, and gee, wonder why) He STILL has people giving him money and he is still claiming all the proof was fake. In HIS little pea brain mind, everything is fake, except him, he is God Almighty, Joe Do No Wrong, King Brett and the best animal rescuer on the earth with the biggest Rottie twins, who were from the same litter, 4 years apart and at different locations, who arent REALLY related now because he was called out. who are therapy dogs who need to wear muzzles so they can appear tough, so Mr twiddlyDum can look like he has mean dogs, and be big man weasel on the tough streets Sounds about right. He tries to confuse to get you tho think its you whos nuts. It is all him.
Thank you again. This just keeps getting worse. Taking not properly trained dogs and pretending they are therapy dogs is just offensive.
“They’re therapy dogs, we just don’t have an appointment. There’s a kid in chemotherapy up there and they said it’s a restricted area.”
Gee, why would chemo be in a restricted area? Compromised immune system in a child and he wants to bring dogs up there? No concern for privacy of someone getting chemo? Only concerned about himself, no one else.
I sent something to your info general email, about the therapy dog issue. It sounds like he is just about the money, nothing else and using the dogs to get money.
This guy is a scam artist top to bottom and it is good that he is being exposed. What really concerns me is how are his dogs? He has no business owning any animal and belongs in prison. Great update Robert.
Great job DogSpot. Notice he has made that video private, along with quite a few others. He loved all the attention, so why does he stop now? Called out a few times in under a weeks time must have really put a damper on his plans to live off others. However, many still see him as a hero, when the normal see him as the ZERO he is. Wonder which dog dies next, so he can beg for money. Soon he will have no dogs to use for income, then what? Also he thinks because his dogs have huge heads (by his words, not the normal world) they are better than all others. Little does he know there. He hasnt seen my friend’s 180 pound rottweiler, with a head rather large. One who does NOT need a muzzle in public as he is owned by a responsible person.
Thank you for publishing these articles, I have been following this man since he posted his dogs on Craigslist, I contacted him and offered to rescue them but he would not unless I would buy them for $3000.00. I asked him why he was asking that amount for them since he rescued them (did not pay for them) and he told me they are therapy dogs and highly trained by him. I mentioned that I noticed that he had only owned them for 1 & 2 years and he told me drug dealers were going to buy them, and I said they honestly came out and told YOU they were drug dealers and he said yes. I told him to contact the police and set up a meeting with the drug dealers so that they can get arrested and off the streets and he immediately blocked me.
Thank you for sharing your story. Not surprising.
This poor pit bull, that owner should’ve immediately turned around and taken his dog out of that situation as quickly as he could. What an asshat this Brett guy is!
Oh, and uh, this says published Jan. 26, 2015, so I guess that answers the question of whether or not one of the dogs is dead. *ahem*
It’s possible he filmed it before Hank died. The date is when it was uploaded.
Well I am glad I Don’t give on line. I go by what I see and know in person.. they need to take his dogs they need a loving home where people love them and not use them.
His ex-classmates have been dealing with his rage and unstable behavior for years. There has been concern over whether or not he would be that guy in the clocktower at some point because he is really off his rocker. He has claimed in the past that a lot of his mental issues started a few years ago when he saw his dog Bubba, a pekingese, commit suicide by jumping out of his car window however he was full of anger issues in school so I have a hard time believing that. Also, who knows now the truth over the death of Bubba and if that was not a money scam. He made a fake Facebook account named Bubba Bennett and used the pictures of classmates family (taken from their Facebook accounts) in really nasty ways. That account was used to abuse and bully classmates that had blocked his main account. This man is not sane and really needs help. Sad to know that he is able to get away with taking money from people. I hope there is an agency out there that is able to get him to stop and get him the help that he needs before someone ends up getting hurt – or worse.
Whoa, wait, hold up. his dog committed “suicide”. Yeah, because every day we hear about dogs that just feel like offing themselves. That has got to be the funniest thing I have heard in this scammer. Always a sad story, and then he needs money. If the dog jumped out the window, it was probably trying to get the hell away from him. And again, he is a very IRRESPONSIBLE dog owner. I have never had a dog jump out any of my windows, and never tried to get away from me as well. I was thinking he maybe had a chemical imbalance, but now I am positive, it is a full mental imbalance. He does know know reality from fiction, or his ass from his elbow, but all he is capable of is lying, cheating, and stealing.
Hope for Justice, please make sure to report him to WA State Attorney General. They should be able to get a nice case against him. He really does need to be in a straitjacket and padded room, the dogs he uses for pity and weapons, removed and he should never be allowed to have another pet, ever!
As a past volunteer at Seattle Children’s Hospital I know that it is PROHIBITED for volunteers to be taking photos of the children there. This man, his website and his photos need to be reported to SPD.
Everyone wanting this man reported should take responsibility to do it themselves instead of waiting for someone else to. Myself and many others have spent the last week and more reporting, posting, sharing this con man’s fraud and scam everywhere we see an opportunity, and very few of us are even in the Seattle area or the state where the most can be done. There is now a facebook page to join and post information Hank And Brutus Owner is a Scammer. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. That someone should be you too.
http://www.ohmidog.com/tag/brett-bennett/
Thank you Marion for your comment, and I hope people do so! I have kind of become part of the pseudo-organized online “community” trying to spread word about this guy. We are all out of state, and many like me far away. I have sure seen some awful stuff, but I can’t report second hand info to anyone – I mean the law (I have been reporting all his videos.. etc. and sharing all this info wherever I can. My question, and others have asked this also, is where are the locals?? There must be people who have seen things. They may be small things, but they would add up… Like leash laws, or are the dogs licensed, vaccinated?? What about local “dog” advocacy groups or rescue organization? Is anyone trying to help the remaining dogs before he kills (allegedly) another one (I have no doubt in my mind)? There are lots of videos where his dogs are off leash around people/dogs. There is a video of a terrified child in a lake, his off leash dog went and sat next to the child, and BB is filming away. Where was the mother or guardian of this child? If some creep was terrorizing my child and filming it, I would report him. Why is his dog off leash around lots of noisy, splashing children?? Luckily the dog is being good, but that is a risky situation to put any dog in… I would never let a dog loose in a situation like that. His judgment is just worse and worse on every video I can stomach. So, it is frustrating. How is this man still walking around conning people, with thousands of on line followers and nobody doing anything. Its seems like this would be a good story for a Seattle news station to pick up. This story here, and one other online “publication” are the ONLY places I have seen anything written about this! This guy has done so much, I would think papers, magazines, online or off, dog advocacy groups,, now therapy dog groups.. would be all over this story… Yet he has 30K followers I was told, on you tube.. and here, a handful of comments……
Shocked, awed, and frustrated in the midwest!
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/pet/4883071021.html
He is scamming on craigslist, too. Despicable human being. Brett Bennett is apparently too lazy to work and spends all his time parading around his dogs to get attention and to get people to feel sorry for him. If he focused more on working rather than recording countless youtube videos, he might no be in the predicament he claims to be in.
Your are just jelous because his foundation worked so just shut up.
i saw a vid where his dogs charged and attacked a sheperd/husky mix. I think he yelled at owner when he did not have his dogs secured. Those pics of his dogs being agressive is scary and i am worried about public. He is making dog owners look bad.
I just saw this one too – with his comment that the Husky got too close to the Rotties territory….it was a public street.
I agree, I tell people that he is just a scammer and he DOESN’T CARE about his poor dogs. My wish is for him to be arrested. Not to be mean, just being honest.
I have just watched six of Brett’s Hank & Brutus YouTube videos.
There is something not right in how he treats them.
They seem depressed.
They never seem happy, energetic or running.
He seems OVER commanding, demanding, scolding, berating & controlling.
This guy needs to be investigated.
Does anyone know if anything has been done?
I’m going to find out as I think this is mistreatment of his dogs if not abuse.
he’s an asshat. The dogs are being exploited, and abused.
Brettvett1 just uploaded a horrible video on youtube abusing poor Brutus, swearing at him and saying he’s going to replace him.
This guy has got serious problems, someone needs to report him to the animal services. Poor Brutus, he needs rescuing.
Just yoday brettvett said he was going to break my neck and that i am a nobody and slew of other words just because i seen his comment saying for everyone to go fuck themselves and this and that so i called him crazy and he just blew up on me from there. This guy is seriously crazy
I agree with everyone here saying Brett is a low life scumbag who takes pleasure in insulting people who have proof that he does bad things, simply because he can’t handle the truth. I’m glad I never got in a argument with him on his videos because all he would do is say immature profanities, even if he is wrong. He is also a hypocrite where he doesn’t like it when people say bad stuff towards him when he does the same thing to them. I’m also glad I never donated money to this scam artist.
Brett Bennett AKA the fraud, scammer, douchebag, animal abuser, women hater, racist prick, fake PTSD man,mentally unstable, psychotically insane, felon, and so on, has been arrested recently for trying to rob a bank in Seattle. Hope he suffers so much in jail that he wishes he never became the lowlife scumbag that he is.
I really despise what this man is doing to people’s perceptions of Rotties in the Seattle area. I have had 2 Rotties. I would never say they couldn’t be therapy dogs. In fact they would probably be great at it. My dogs have been extremely empathetic, caring and nurturing. It’s the man that the issue is with. He’s a horrible “owner”. Please don’t berate the dogs. It’s him. As for the hospital having that rule, it is based on public perceptions. Most good owners of big, powerful dogs take the time to train them from early on. Again don’t knock the breed, it’s the owner. Poor dog needs to be rescued.
I couldn’t agree more. The last I heard was that the owner is in jail for robbing a bank. I believe the dog was rehommed but I don’t remember as it happened awhile ago.