In 1995, Barker established the DJ&T Foundation, named in memory of his late wife, Dorothy Jo Gideon (who passed away in 1981), and his mother, Matilda "Tilly" Valandra. The foundation’s sole mission was to fund low-cost spay and neuter clinics across the United States.
Rather than building a massive administrative bureaucracy, the DJ&T Foundation operated with extreme efficiency, distributing millions of dollars in direct grants to local rescue groups, mobile surgical vans, and public clinics. By directly subsidizing the cost of surgeries for low-income pet owners, Barker’s foundation prevented hundreds of thousands of unwanted litters before they could strain local municipal shelters.
2. Institutionalizing Animal Law at Elite Universities
Barker recognized that permanent change required legal protection. In the early 2000s, animal law was an obscure elective at a handful of universities. To elevate the field into a respected legal discipline, Barker personally donated $1 million gifts to top-tier law schools, including:
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Harvard Law School
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Columbia Law School
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Duke University School of Law
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Stanford Law School
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UCLA School of Law
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Georgetown University Law Center
These endowments established dedicated courses, legal clinics, and research fellowships in animal law. Today, thanks in large part to Barker's seed capital, animal law is a standard academic discipline, producing attorneys who challenge factory farming standards, fight wildlife trafficking, and draft state and federal animal cruelty legislation.