It was a coincidence that just one day before the 1996 winter oil spill, the Rhode Island Veterinary Medical Association, the Department of Environmental Management, the Potter League for Animals, and the American Red Cross jointly asked the Foundation to support a plan to care for animals in the case of a "man-made or natural disaster."

A coincidence of timing, yes. But it was no surprise that these four organizations – representing another dozen groups ranging from the Audubon Society and the Roger Williams Park Zoo to Save the Bay and Lincoln Greyhound Park – were working collaboratively, nor that they were coming to The Rhode Island Foundation for assistance. Those are predictable circumstances, thanks to the compassion and foresight of two Rhode Island women.

Virginia B. Butler inherited her love of animals from her mother, Amy. According to a family friend, Amy would stand along the roadside in her Bristol neighborhood and berate or even bring charges against horseowners who she believed were mistreating the animals.

Together, mother and daughter practiced what they preached, always caring for five or ten dogs and cats around the house, successfully halting a local 5&10 from selling birds due to improper care, and cleaning up the Bristol dog pound. They helped establish an animal hospital near a summer home on Cape Cod, and helped put a student through veterinary college so he could run it.

Virginia Butler supported many animal care-based organizations, but she left an endowment now worth more than $2 million with The Rhode Island Foundation "because she believed that no single existing organization dealing with animals could effectively carry out her intended purposes," wrote Providence lawyer Calvert C. Groton at the time of her death.

Ten years later Abbie A. Brougham of Newport left her entire estate to the Foundation "to the support of programs and organizations devoted to the maintenance, care, and welfare of animals." Brougham was a "nice, quiet, gentle person" who was a good investor, said her stockbroker, Russell Hutton of ADVEST. Never married and an only child, her sole interest was animals. She died in her late 80s, leaving an endowment for animals now worth $450,000.

The Foundation responds

Butler's large endowment - and later Brougham's - galvanized the Foundation into learning about an issue in which it had little experience, but now had a serious responsibility. In one of its first acts, on September 15, 1977, the Foundation called a public meeting at the Providence Public Library to both announce its intentions and to learn from the audience, which included most of the key animal humane organizations in Rhode Island.

According to Carol Scott, a consultant then hired by the Foundation to coordinate the funds, "The key accomplishment of our work is that we brought people together." The collaborations generated impressive results. The Zoo and the Providence Schools created a joint program for 1st graders with English deficiencies; the Children's Museum began classes for Rhode Island 4th graders in humane care and the arts; the Norman Bird Sanctuary and the Potter League created school projects on Aquidneck Island. The groups developed two conferences on rabies and related health issues, bringing together 150 police officers and town animal control officers.

Also born of these collaborations is RILAAC, the Rhode Island Legislative and Animal Action Committee. This all-volunteer group identified several legal issues, and scored early wins on such matters as spay-neutering, animals being transported in truck beds, the sale and importation of exotic birds, and public education about rabies and vaccinations.

The Foundation did choose to fund the prescient proposal to enlarge the state's disaster plan to include caring for animals in danger, as well as an emergency proposal by Save the Bay to coordinate training of 150 volunteers responding to the oil spill crisis. "Many, many heartfelt thanks," Save the Bay responded, but the thanks truly go to the two Rhode Islanders who considered animal care a perpetual mission.