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The Animal Welfare Cause
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Loading...Charities Take Legal Action to Change the History of Animal Protection
What if there was enough money to rescue all of the homeless, abused or neglected dogs? And what if there were ample funds to shut down every puppy mill, dog fighting operation and open enough low cost spay and neuter clinics so that pet overpopulation would be a problem of the past? Think it sounds like wishful thinking?
Well three of the largest animal welfare groups in the U.S. think it is a very real possibility and that is why they joined together to file a lawsuit concerning the distribution of funds from the estate of hotel magnate, Leona M. Helmsley.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Maddie’s Fund filed a petition accusing the trustees of the Harry and Leona Helmsley Charitable Trust of not spending the more than $5 billion in her estate as she intended and the “blatant abuse of her estate.” According to Wayne Pacelle of HSUS, “Mrs. Helmsley “stated explicitly that special emphasis should be given in the trust’s allocation of grants for purposes related to the provision of care for dogs.”
Instead, the trustees only awarded $1 million of the $136 million distributed in 2009 to organizations dealing with dogs and $900,000 of that money went to train seeing-eye dogs, which serve people rather than help dogs in need. The rest of the money was donated to medical centers for humans.
The ASPCA, HSUS and Maddie’s Fund want the court to throw out a six-month-old decision made by Judge Troy K. Webber that said Helmsley’s money could be distributed at the trustees’ discretion. They also want to protect future donors who have saved their money to leave to a particular cause; to not be cheated and denied their wishes after they pass away.
According to the New York Times, the controversy began in 2004 when Helmsley deleted a sentence from a two-page “mission statement” about how her estate should be distributed. At first, the mission statement included a sentence about helping indigent people and providing for the care and welfare of dogs. But in 2004 she took out the portion about people, leaving only the intent that her entire trust be used for dogs.
This would have been a clear message, but Mrs. Helmsley muddied her intent by also giving her five trustees the authority to distribute funds at their discretion. And unfortunately, they have not seen fit to help animals.
In retaliation, the three welfare groups have issued a message to the trustees that they still need to pay attention to Helmsley’s intent and have accused them of developing a “scheme to deprive dog welfare charities” of the fortune.
The most frustrating part of this situation is that money is sitting there, while tens of thousands of dogs are suffering. Many animal shelters and rescue groups are barely getting by in our depressed economy and funds that are earmarked to help are being redirected.
This is one of the few situations where there is enough money to really change and/or stop horrific situations such as dog fighting, puppy mills and abuse.
The Chairwoman for the ASPCA, Marsha Perelman said the kind of money in the Helmsley trust would be “game changing” for animal-welfare groups.
“Almost 2 million dogs are needlessly euthanized in this country every year,” Perelman said. “If funds from the Helmsley estate were available to address this problem, this problem could be made to disappear.”
Wayne Pacelle sums it up by saying, “Imagine what these resources could do for animal shelters and rescue groups in the United States and abroad. It could be the greatest change in the history of animal protection.”
Please sign this petition to stop robbing dogs from the Leona Helmsley estate.
Read more: animal protection, animal welfare, aspca, helmsley lawsuit, hsus, maddies fund
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37 comments
+ add your ownNothing has changed. Her trustees are an abomination to society. Obviously, Leona was correct in choosing animals over humans in her will.
If these large animal welfare organisations would start managing donor money more properly, they would have more for valuable programs which would help reduce the euthanasia rate in the States (although they will rarely help local shelters/rescues directly). And until the many, many egos at these places are shown the door, it will be the same old song and dance. I find it amusing that Mr. Pacelle mentions animal shelters here and abroad when HSUS and Humane Society International exploit local organisations (calling them "partnerships") so they can snatch the resulting donations. Bloody ridiculous.
This is truly heartbreaking. Even when animals finally seem to be getting a real break, it is taken away because of human greed. Mrs. Helmsley's money should be spent entirely as she intended it to be...on improving the lives of animals.
Perhaps the people who allowed her wishes to be so blatantly disregarded would take their responsibilities more seriously if they thought non-animal bequests might be similarly challenged in future. (Why should a wealthy judge or politician's children inherit his entire estate just because that's what was stated in his will? I'm sure there are lots of worthy causes out there that could put his money to better use!)
I believe that Leona Helmsly's wishes should
be enforced. Her "trustees" should be made to use the money for what it was intended which was to help dogs and not people. Ms. Helmsly came to realize that dogs deserve more help than people.
Lenne, we need to post some addresses for people to write too. That judge needs to be thrown out on his a$$. I'm sure he got his share off this deal. No other reason for a decision like he made. Maybe we need to start giving money to the animal charities BEFORE we die, so we know it gets there.
Write, Write, Write, Write, Write letters to the government
People are scum, greedy selfish bastards.
Just wait, god has a plan for these creeps!!
Its time to flood the USDA with letters. Its funny they call the animal right groups terrorists.
Right now our military is using animals in cruel inhuman trauma reseach on animals. Blowing them up alive, including electrocuting, slicing and dicing.
What is wrong with our government. Their the terriorists!!
Mary C:. Sadly, I agree with your statement, "There IS no welfare for animals." Animals who end up in city/county so-called "Shelters" (Killing Facilities), haven't a chance in hell other than a private rescue group (who is not filled up), or a kind adopter who will actually visit one of these depressing, mostly ill kept facilities where hundreds of doomed dogs and cats peer through the bars with eyes that clearly say, "Why?" I am disgusted, so sad for the innocent animals who in reality "have no where to go". Also, sadly, the large animal charities who may have a chance to receive some of this money from Hemsley's estate won't be there for those on the front lines in the the cities and towns across our nation - We can only watch as these dear, discarded abandoned animals are killed, through no fault of their own. Our elected officials have "better things to spend our tax dollars on"....in their opinion. And they spend it continuously on everything BUT our homeless pet population. Fed up, and crying in frustration.
Sadly, this is how things are and always will be. Even though a few laws have gotten a bit "tougher", the abuse, dogfighting, etc still continues and IMO is getting worse. They are closing shelters, yet doing nothing about the idiots who let their unspayed dogs run loose. They refuse to shut down puppy mills. Obviously, NOTHING will ever be done and the fact that these people can get away with not putting the money into animal charities says a lot about the future welfare of animals. There IS no welfare for animals.
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