A Florida woman has set up a $1 million endowment fund for the Cat Protection Society, a no-kill shelter in Sorrento, Fla., with more than 500 stray and abandoned cats.
Annual proceeds from Doane Broggis gift, about $50,000, will help pay for the shelters salaries, supplies and veterinarian bills, including spaying and neutering.
Currently, the shelter exists on about $100,000 a year, generated by donations and fundraisers.
Veterinarian bills alone can be as high as $46,000 annually and cat litter costs about $200 a week, according to the shelter. The 75 pounds of dry cat food eaten by the cats daily is donated by the Science Diet company.
Broggi began volunteering at the shelter in 1998 by cleaning out cages. She now mainly transports cats to the veterinarian. She is a retired antiques dealer and the daughter of the late Walter Doane Bo Randall,) founder of Randall Made Knives company.
Broggi donated the money through the Lake Eustis Foundation in Lake County. The endowment fund will be managed by the Community Foundation of Central Florida, the parent organization for the Lake Eustis Foundation.
The $1 million principal cannot be touched by the Cat Protection Society or anyone else, according to Virginia Barker of the Lake Eustis Foundation. If the cat shelter were to close, the money would go to benefit another charity Broggi specifies.
Posted: June 16, 2006, 5:00 a.m. EST