Well I'll Be Doggone: Leona Helmsley Trust

Over the last year, there's been all sorts of huff and puff - including mine - when it was revealed that hotelier/real estate empress Leona Helmsley had left $12M to her dog (subsequently cut to $2M). Now it seems that the charitable trust that's the recipient of the bulk of her wealth is supposed to be use exclusively for the welfare of dogs.

That, at least, is the goal expressed in Helmsley's mission statement (as reported in The NY Times):

The two people who described the statement said Mrs. Helmsley signed it in 2003 to establish goals for the multibillion-dollar trust that would disburse assets after her death.

The first goal was to help indigent people, the second to provide for the care and welfare of dogs. A year later, they said, she deleted the first goal.

While the mission statement is apparently not binding legally, it is customary to follow said wishes.

Just how much is that dog trust in the window?

It's valued at $5B - $8B, which according to The Times is

...worth almost 10 times the combined assets of all 7,381 animal-related nonprofit groups reporting to the Internal Revenue Service in 2005

Wow! (Or is it bow-wow.)

My first thought was to ask myself, 'Was she nuts?' There are so many human charities out there that need help, why didn't she just let the bit about "indigent people" stay put?

But my second thought was, 'Hey, it was her money.'

And there are plenty of dog-related things that the money could go to (most of which would also help us two-legged friends out, too):

• Better neutering programs (who, other than the dogs themselves, could object to this?)
• Reduce the waiting list for those needing seeing eye and other helper dogs (if there is one)
• Dog parks/dog runs in cities (that aren't just set up, but are maintained by the trust)
• Free pet clinics in poor areas (and while we're at it, why not throw a physician's assistant into the mix and provide a little wellness care while the pet owners are paying a call)
• Endowed chairs at veterinary medicine schools
• Research into dog diseases (wouldn't it be nice to get rid of the hip dysplasia that causes so many big dogs to live in pain? it might actually help humankind out, too)
• Programs that put pets in nursing homes, homes for the handicapped, schools with special needs kids - anyplace where having a pooch around might help people cope
• Establish an artists' foundation, with annual grants for those who paint, sculpt, or write about dogs (I'm sure there's plenty of dog-art out there that doesn't involve bull dogs and labs sitting around a card table playing poker and smoking cigars)

Hey, Leona may have been a bitch, but it was her money, and just because it's going to the dogs, doesn't mean it's going to the dogs.