Rhode Island
Wolf dogs that once roamed Warwick have built a bond between RI and Ohio sanctuary
One year later, a strong bond has developed between Rhode Island and the Ohio sanctuary that rescued a pair of wolf dogs from Warwick.
When she finally agreed to take in a pair of wolf dogs that had been running wild in Warwick a year ago, Susan Vogt didn’t realize she was starting a relationship with a lot of Rhode Island residents that would end up helping support and expand her Ohio wolf-dog sanctuary.
Since the canine sisters, initially thought to be “black coyotes,” arrived at the Red Riding Hood Rescue Project last May, Rhode Islanders have donated thousands of dollars, food and toys, which have supported not just the two “401 Girls” but all 22 of the sanctuary’s wolf dogs, said Vogt, co-founder and president.
“What happened was the biggest blessing,” said Vogt, whose three-year-old nonprofit rescue relies entirely on donations. “Rhode Islanders have been tremendously supportive.”
More: ‘Fresh start:’ Warwick wolf dogs start their new life in Ohio in the ‘401 Run’
Here are some examples of the connection between Rhode Island and the Ohio rescue often called just “The Red”:
- A Coventry woman and her boyfriend drove 15 hours from Rhode Island to Middletown, Ohio, to deliver the wolf dogs to their new home.
- A Warwick woman has become one of the rescue’s volunteers, flying to Ohio to help out.
- A Providence woman has provided thousands of dollars in matching funds for several projects to expand and improve the rescue. Vogt calls her “our East Coast Advocate,” because she also hands out the rescue’s business cards and spreads the word about its mission.
- The sanctuary keeps an active Facebook page with frequent updates on the wolf dogs. “Our digital analysis still shows Rhode Island is our biggest audience,” Vogt said.
Just last week, after Vogt mentioned on Facebook that the sanctuary was running low on meat, a Rhode Island woman contacted her to say she would send deer and bear meat recently harvested by family members.
More: DNA test confirms Warwick dogs mistaken for coyotes are part wolf. Here’s how much.
Last spring the ‘black coyotes’ made big news in Rhode Island
This time last spring, the two wolf dog pups, then called Libby and Bella, caused a stir running free around Warwick. They were eventually captured and ended up in the custody of the Warwick Animal Shelter but couldn’t stay in Rhode Island because it’s illegal to keep wolf dogs here.
When Ann Corvin, director of the Warwick Animal Shelter, called to ask if The Red could take the wolf dogs, Vogt said no; her sanctuary was full. Corvin didn’t give up, and Vogt eventually gave in.
The dogs, renamed Wiley and Willow, have been at the sanctuary for almost a year and have nearly doubled in size. Wiley is about 95 pounds; Willow, a little shorter in length and height, weighs about 85 or 90 pounds. At about 1½ years old, they’re yearlings and still growing.
“They are doing really well,” Vogt said. “They have settled in. They know the routine.”
Wiley is a “rascal” and a quick learner, Vogt said, while Willow prefers to “stay in the shadows.” Delivery trucks often pull up to The Red with gifts for the wolf dogs, many from Rhode Islanders. Willow loves carrying stuffed animals in her mouth. “When people send her stuffies,” Vogt said, “it’s like her emotional support animal.”
A lot of people have asked about adopting Wiley and Willow, but they’re not ready for that. “They have this edge to them,” Vogt said. “They were treated poorly. They were running loose.”
With the sanctuary’s wolf dogs, one of the milestones comes when the animals allow a handler to place a slip leash over their heads so they can go out for walks. That kind of trust also makes it easier for veterinarians to work with the animals. Willow and Wiley haven’t gotten there yet.
“It’s work, and it’s a very slow process,” Vogt said.
‘This is a good place for them’
Danielle Verrier, of Coventry, is an animal lover, but her boyfriend, Alex Clarke, of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is the one who had experience working with wolf dogs. When Clarke asked Verrier last year whether she would drive 830 miles with him to deliver the animals, Verrier “didn’t think twice about driving 15 hours. I said, ‘No problem. We’ll make it work,’” Verrier recalled recently.
With the air-conditioning blasting to keep the animals comfortable, the couple drove straight through. “When you’ve got a couple of wolf dogs with you, you can’t really stop at a hotel,” Verrier said.
Arriving at The Red, Verrier immediately got a good vibe. Having worked with other rescue organizations, Verrier believes she can sense when the humans are in it for the animals. She remembered thinking, “Oh, yeah. This is a good place for them. Everyone cares so much for these animals.”
After staying a couple of days in May, Clarke and Verrier returned in July for a visit. Verrier said, “They’re my Ohio friends now.”
Helping out a long way from Rhode Island
Caring for 22 wolf dogs requires a lot of hard work, and the Red Riding Hood Rescue Project relies on many volunteers. Alicia Bigos is a little different from the sanctuary’s other volunteers, because she lives in Warwick and flies to Ohio to help out.
Bigos has gone twice, helping with tasks such as feeding, cleaning up after the animals and providing enrichment. She plans another visit at the end of this month. The rescue doesn’t accept just anyone, according to Vogt, but requires its volunteers to pass a training program.
Bigos has always been “fascinated” by wolf dogs and “absolutely fell in love” with them on her first visit, she said. “Susan and her husband [Colin] are such welcoming people. I instantly felt at home, like I belonged there.”
“We all love her,” Vogt said. “We want her to move here.”
More: Mistaken for coyotes in Warwick, turns out Bella and Libby were puppies – the domestic kind
‘She has built this place’
Vogt hopes to soon meet a woman who is perhaps the sanctuary’s greatest Rhode Island supporter, Alicia Mancini, of Providence.
“I have yet to meet her, but I adore her,” Vogt said.
Mancini and her husband, Rob, have provided thousands of dollars in matching funds for several projects. They’ve helped expand Willow and Wiley’s pen, which, in turn, enabled an expansion of the entire facility, allowing the rescue to build more pens and take in more animals.
They’ve donated money to extend water lines from Vogt’s house to the wolf-dog pens so volunteers don’t have to lug water buckets a quarter mile, and they’ve also donated, so the rescue could put down thousands of yards of gravel to keep the animals and volunteers out of the mud.
“She has built this place, I told her,” Vogt said. “She’s done a tremendous amount of good.”
Mancini and her husband have provided their financial support anonymously. To show their gratitude, The Red named its expanded section after their pet cat, Kurtz.
Vogt calls Mancini The Red’s “East Coast Advocate.” She sent her business cards, which Mancini hands out to friends and family. Mancini sometimes wears a Red Riding Hood Rescue shirt and finds that people will often ask her about it. She often tells them about the rescue and the mission and hands them a card.
Helping the wolf dogs at The Red “feels good,” Mancini said.
“It’s worth it,” she said. “It’s a wonderful thing.”
WARWICK, R.I. (WJAR) — The local community hosted a send-off celebration for Special Olympics Rhode Island athletes on Friday.
Twenty-four athletes, along with partners, coaches, and medical personnel, are traveling to Minneapolis for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.
The local community hosted a send-off celebration for Special Olympics Rhode Island athletes on Friday. (WJAR)
Textron hosted the team in a private jet for travel to the games, officials said.
“The USA Games represent months of dedication, hard work, and perseverance for our athletes,” President and CEO of Special Olympics Rhode Island Ed Pacheco said. “Our athletes, Unified partners, and coaches carry with them the hopes and aspirations of achieving gold while representing the very fabric of our great state. This journey would not be possible without Textron, and we are incredibly grateful for their support in creating a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Team Rhode Island as they travel to compete on the national stage.”
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Officials said the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games will be held from Saturday through next Friday.
“They were truly the unrelenting voices of their time, and made sure that this was something that happened because they knew it was important,” Jess Motyl-Szary, director of Rhode Island Pride, said in an interview on Thursday.
The 1976 pride march came after local Bicentennial Committee organizers “refused meeting space for the group of community members hosting the Congress of People with Gay Concerns,” according to research by Matthew Lawrence and published on the Providence Public Library’s website.
“Calling themselves Toward a Gayer Bicentennial Committee, the group sued the official Bicentennial Committee and won the right to assemble at the Old State House, where about 30 people met in June 1976 to discuss civil rights concerns,” according to Lawrence.
But the contingent also had to fight to join the Bicentennial Parade after they were initially denied the right to do so by officials who pointed to the state’s anti-sodomy law at the time, according to Motyl-Szary.
The 76ers “knew that being a part of an existing parade meant there was a little bit of safety there, because it was an existing infrastructure,” Motyl-Szary said.
“But it also meant that there was a much higher visibility for them to be able to be out there, be proud, and show other people who might not have been out that there is a safe space for them,” Motyl-Szary said.
With the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union, they won the right to march, she said.
“It wasn’t safe to be out in the ’70s,” Motyl-Szary said. “Incredibly great people marched. Some had to march with paper bags on their heads because there were no legal protections to protect their jobs, their home, their families, but [it was] still incredibly brave to go out there, create visibility, and create this organization.
“Being here 50 years later, and being a part of their legacy has been so incredible,” she said.
A lot has changed for LGBTQIA+ Rhode Islanders in the decades since, Motyl-Szary said.
“But the closeness of it still feels relevant because we’re seeing these continued attacks in our community, and a very real resurgence of attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community, especially our trans brothers, sisters, and siblings,” Motyl-Szary said.
Since returning to office last year, the Trump Administration has taken aim at transgender rights across the country, especially after President Donald Trump signed an executive order recognizing two sexes, male and female. Among other actions, Trump has often sought to tie adherence to the order with federal funding requirements, and the administration has also attempted to gather private medical records from hospitals that provided gender-affirming care to transgender children and teens.
Reflecting on what pride means to her right now, Motyl-Szary said pride festivities are new to at least somebody every year.
“Someone is coming and getting to feel this embrace, this huge hug of their community for the first time every year,” she said. “And in a time like this, when our community is being told that we are hated by the rest of our community, by the rest of our country, when we are told we should hate ourselves, coming out and celebrating ourselves, loving ourselves, loving each other is so incredibly important. Our community creates the space that we need.”
Motyl-Szary said she also believes that “queer joy is resistance.”
“There is a real need for us to have a space and a celebration of who we are and to remind ourselves that we are worthy of love and that we are worthy of being a part of a community that gathers, celebrates, and fights for ourselves and our rights,” she said.
Rhode Island Pride kicks off on Friday night with the “Golden Anniversary Eve” party from 6 to 8 p.m. at the 195 District Park in Providence, Motyl-Szary said.
Festivities continue at the park on Saturday with yoga at 10 a.m. and PrideFest entertainment beginning at 11 a.m., alongside approximately 260 vendors, she said. A rally at 2 p.m. will focus on “what’s happening, get people motivated to be involved in [the] community to speak up and be an activist in whatever way is right for their path of activism,” Motyl-Szary said.
The Illuminated Night Parade steps off at 7:30 p.m. at Washington and Empire streets before moving through downtown Providence, according to organizers.
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.
(WJAR) — While Rhode Island prepares for its 50th Pride celebration, many are looking back on the history of the event and remembering the people who launched the movement.
“Being in the first parade in 1976, it was the bicentennial year,” said Billy Mencer Ackerly. “It was absolutely very scary and we didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Mencer Ackerly was among a group of between 70 and 100 people who marched in Providence’s first pride parade in June of 1976, at the time of the nation’s bicentennial celebration.
“People on the sidelines were still looking at us like we just came off of a spaceship,” Mencer Ackerly said. “It was almost like they didn’t believe that we would have enough courage to be able to say who we were.”
Billy Mencer Ackerly was among a group of between 70 and 100 people who marched in Providence’s first pride parade in June of 1976, at the time of the nation’s bicentennial celebration. (WJAR)
For some, it was a chance to come out and be seen. For others, like Billy’s family members who took part in the parade, it was an opportunity to show their support.
“My mother was in a car with two other mothers, and it was driven by a gay guy. And on each side of the car it said, ‘I’m proud to say my child is gay,’” Mencer Ackerly said. “It was the best thing my mother ever did for me.”
But the parade itself was almost shut down before it began.
“They were denied the parade by the police chief who said there would be no parade in providence over his dead body,” retired judge and former civil rights attorney Stephen Fortunato said.
First, the bicentennial commission rejected a proposal to include the pride parade in the bicentennial celebrations.
“They can be gay. I have no qualms about their activity or their private habits. We denied endorsement primarily because their activities do not sufficiently relate to the bicentennial,” said Patrick Conley in 1976. He was the Chairman of the Bicentennial Commission at the time.
Stephen Fortunato, who was a civil rights attorney at the time, took on the case.
“This group was ostracized, hated, discriminated against,” Fortunato said. “These civil rights and civil liberties cases depend on the courage of individual people or groups of people like the gay community at the time.”
Billy Mencer Ackerly’s mother, among other mothers, were in a car that read ‘I’m proud to say my child is gay’ during the first parade.
They took the case to federal court and won, paving the way for not just one parade, but five decades of love, acceptance and visibility.
“This movement is based on love,” said Rodney Davis, the current president of Rhode Island Pride. “I want people to come and experience themselves. Their whole selves, who they are.”
This year, organizers are honoring those who came before as well as the tens of thousands of people who show up every year to continue to carry the torch.
“Our theme for this year is ‘We are the people,’ because without everyone America isn’t America,” Davis said.
NBC 10 asked Davis what he hopes to see in the future.
“I want to get to a point where we don’t have to fight to exist,” Davis said. “It’s gotten better, but it’s not there yet.”
Since 1976, Mencer Ackerly has attended Rhode Island’s Pride celebration nearly every year. This coming weekend, he’s once again looking forward to participating.
“When I’m in the parade, I will also be thinking of all those ’76ers that have passed away over the years and about their bravery and their courage,” Mencer Ackerly said. “And I just believe they’ll be clapping up in heaven and celebrating for all of us.”
This year’s PrideFest kicks off Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. at District Park in Providence.
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