Benny and the Pets: Sam Bennett Teams up with Broward Humane Society on new Charity

For every goal he scores this season, Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett will sponsor the adoption of a pet from the Humane Society of Broward County.

Photos via BennysBuddies9 / Instagram

FORT LAUDERDALE — Each goal Sam Bennett scores during the 2024-25 season is going to mean just a little bit more.

The Florida Panthers centerman is starting up the ‘Benny’s Buddies’ campaign in partnership with the Humane Society of Broward County where he will sponsor the adoption of a pet with each goal he scores this season.

Bennett and his fiancé, Zoe, announced the new initiative on Instagram on Friday, featuring pictures of their new puppy, Billie, and cat, Gracie, who they adopted from the Humane Society.

“What inspired it was, first, we adopted a cat probably a year ago, and then recently, we adopted a puppy from the Broward Humane Society,” Bennett told Pucks and Palms.

“My fiancé has been volunteering there for over a year now, and she and I came up with the idea that every goal I score this year will pay the adoption fee of either a cat or a dog that is in need of getting adopted.

“We’re really excited to start that program. We’re actually going there in the next couple of days and I think we’re going to shoot a video and really release the program, so I’m definitely excited to get that going.”

Bennett has yet to officially fully launch the program, but he hopes to get it going and help get those pets adopted very soon.

“I’m not entirely sure yet, but I believe we’re going to have links to the dogs and cats that we sponsor and people can go and see them,” Bennett said. “I’ve actually had a bunch of people reach out and say they want to donate as well, so we’re going to have to figure out how to get that all going, but in the next week or so, we’ll have everything down with it.”

And he already has his work cut out for himself after scoring three goals in the first five games of the season.

“I hope I can score a bunch more and get as many pets as we can adopted this year,” Bennett said. “I’m definitely excited. I’m going to go to the shelter soon and pick out the pets that we’ll want to sponsor, so it’s a fun program to be a part of.”

After the launch through social media, the South Florida community has come out in droves to support Bennett and his charity, reaching out to ask how they can adopt a pet, donate to the charity, and generally spreading support for the movement on social media.

“It’s amazing,” Bennett said. “It hasn’t even been an official release yet and so many people have reached out to either donate or learn more about it. So, it’s definitely exciting to hear how many people are excited about this program because it’s really important to me and my fiancé.”