Crazy old bat leaves $8bn to dogs.

[Vympel]

Link

The late US real estate tycoon Leona Helmsley reportedly wanted her estimated $8bn fortune spent on dogs.

She left instructions that her estate go towards dog welfare, according to the New York Times, and animal welfare groups are elated.

The newspaper said that while her wishes were not part of her will courts do consider expressions of intent.

Mrs Helmsley, who died last August aged 87, was dubbed the "Queen of Mean" during a trial in 1989 for tax evasion.

She left a $12m (£6m) inheritance to her pet dog, Trouble, explicitly leaving out two of her grandchildren.

But in April a Manhattan judge reduced the trust fund for the nine-year-old Maltese to $2m and the grandchildren received $6m each.

Charities said the money could be used to rescue dogs from disaster zones and to tackle dog fighting, rabies in China and India as well as the canine over-population problem.

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society, said US charitable foundations, like that established by Mrs Helmsley, were legally required to spend 5% of their assets per year.

On an $8bn estate, that would be $400m - three times the Humane Society's annual budget, he told AP news agency.

I'm sorry, but are you fucking kidding me? Is it just me, or does it strike anyone else as utterly obscene that

a: anyone could want $8bn spent on dogs when there's so many fucking problems in the world with humanity; and

b: a court could deign to honor such a ridiculous bequest.

It's enough to make you wish there was a law for the state to step in and annul obviously absurd bequests and redistribute the funds to a more worthy cause. I love dogs as much as the next guy, but $8bn? Fuck off - especially when the bitch got done in 1989 for tax evasion after testimony was given that she said "we don't pay taxes. only little people pay taxes".

(this "Queen of Mean" was a real fucking bitch)

[Resinence]

On an $8bn estate, that would be $400m - three times the Humane Society's annual budget, he told AP news agency.

Nothing but disgust. All that money, for bloody dogs.

[K. A. Pital]

Wait, a rich old fuck gave eight fucking billion to dogs? No, that's a whole new level of bullshit. Unbelievable.

"Animal welfare"? Holy fucking christ, there's a billion literally hungry people out there, a spiralling rise of world suffering, wars, disasters, so much shit that causes intense human pain, and yet that bitch gives it to dogs?

A good reminder why I don't like rich people again. They continously prove themselves to be able to act like fucktards on a large scale.

[Darth Hoth]

Normally, I am an absolute property rightist, but this is somehow too pathetically asinine. In this one case, seize and redistribute away!

Examining the case, I can think of two resons why she would do such a thing: 1) She was completely out of touch with reality, or 2) She was out to be as mindbogglingly mean to her heirs as possible, showing exactly how little she thought of them by essentially using the money for toilet paper, so to speak.

[K. A. Pital]

Normally, I am an absolute property rightist, but this is somehow too pathetically asinine.

That's just the property "rights" philosophy taken to the extreme. When you assume a social right, something just granted by the society to make life better, to be somehow absolute and always justified, that's what happens.

[The Spartan]

That might not be an unreasonable number if it was meant to pay to aid every dog in the fucking country.

Worthless hag...

[Jaevric]

While I agree that it's obscene to spend 8 billion dollars on something like that when there are arguably more worthy charities out there, it's a better use for the money in my opinion than sitting in some rich brat's bank account to keep him or her provided with booze and drugs. Or gold-plating the deceased's personal mausoleum or whatever other absurdity she spent her money on.

Of course, we don't know which animal activist groups will actually end up benefitting from the money yet, so it could all end up going to PETA or something equally useless.

Anyway, I think it's fairly clear that she was out of touch with reality and had been for years, given her "only little people pay taxes!" comment and $12 million dollars left to her Maltese (I mean, sure, leaving that kind of money to a Labrador Retriever or an Irish Wolfhound would make sense, but a Maltese? Yuck).

[CJvR]

I might be barking up the wrong tree but It was her $$ to with as she pleased, perhaps she was just very fond of dogs.
We have laws here preventing the total exclusion of children from thir parents will. If anything they should have gotten her declared incompetent before she died.
How many dogs are ther in the US? 80 million or so? That's 100$ / mutt!

[Pelranius]

I didn't know she was dead. But then, I keep on forgetting that Yeltsin is dead.

[Rye]

Ah well, it could be worse. At least it's gone to a good cause, even if her priorities are a bit skewed by most standards. It's not like she donated it to John McCain's election fund.

[[R_H]]

While I agree that it's obscene to spend 8 billion dollars on something like that when there are arguably more worthy charities out there, it's a better use for the money in my opinion than sitting in some rich brat's bank account to keep him or her provided with booze and drugs. Or gold-plating the deceased's personal mausoleum or whatever other absurdity she spent her money on.

Of course, we don't know which animal activist groups will actually end up benefitting from the money yet, so it could all end up going to PETA or something equally useless.

Anyway, I think it's fairly clear that she was out of touch with reality and had been for years, given her "only little people pay taxes!" comment and $12 million dollars left to her Maltese (I mean, sure, leaving that kind of money to a Labrador Retriever or an Irish Wolfhound would make sense, but a Maltese? Yuck).

It would be absolutely horrible if all that money went to PETA. She left 12 million dollars for her Maltese in a trust fund, and didn't leave her grandchildren a penny.

[Kanastrous]

This does go toward reinforcing the appearance that there's an inverse relationship between a devoted animal-lover's love of animals-in-general, and their love of humans-in-general.

[Resinence]

I used to know a crazy sociopath (no impulse control I guess), and he was violent as hell towards humans but wouldn't hurt a fly, literally. I wonder if it's because they relate to animals more.

[Guardsman Bass]

For all the people saying that it is absolutely vile that she chose to donate all her money to the welfare of dogs (I agree that specifically $12 million to her pet was probably a little asinine) - are you also saying that it is wrong for people to donate money to animal shelters and the Humane Society, since, after all, that money could be going to a food bank?

I don't recall there ever being a moral obligation to donate your fortune to charity or the good will of humanity, and society takes its cut in the form of inheritance tax.

[General Zod]

For some reason I'm having a hard time not picturing her grandchildren being greedy little shits arguing over who got more of the money since the story scarcely mentions them at all. Maybe donating it to a charity wasn't such a bad idea?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

For all the people saying that it is absolutely vile that she chose to donate all her money to the welfare of dogs (I agree that specifically $12 million to her pet was probably a little asinine) - are you also saying that it is wrong for people to donate money to animal shelters and the Humane Society, since, after all, that money could be going to a food bank?

I don't recall there ever being a moral obligation to donate your fortune to charity or the good will of humanity, and society takes its cut in the form of inheritance tax.

There's nothing wrong to giving money to a Humane society and what not.

There's however something wrong with giving a dog a shit load of money that it will never even get a chance to spend even 10% of it.

[Alyrium Denryle]

You know, considering all of the other stupid shit she could have ordered that money spent on, I can take some comfort in the fact that she spent it on something that is going to do some good, as opposed to keeping her relatives supplied with drugs, or pulling a Donald Trump and gold-plating her tomb.

Granted, I would have preferred her donating the money to conservation or research, but animal welfare is worthy enough for me to not despise her for her choice. Even if she was a raging cunt

[Justforfun000]

I am an animal lover and even became vegetarian for 7 years in the mistaken belief that this was somehow 'noble'. Obviously I've grown in my beliefs since then...this is a savage garden and that's just the way it is.

That being said though, I still prize emotions like love, empathy and sympathy and while half of me is shocked by the contrast of this kind of money being spent on other species instead of our own, I also can't say it shouldn't be her right to do it.

It IS her money and it's not a BAD cause. I presume no one here would object to anyone donating $20 to an animal rescue fund. It's the sheer amount of money that triggers the kickback reaction here.

There are trillions and trillions of dollars out in the world and if you really look, you'll see amounts like that 8 Billion being spent on such frivilous shit that when you come back to this story, you'll throw your hands up and say "whatever". There are people building golf courses in the middle of the desert in Nevada that costs an astronomical amount of money and resources to keep the grass alive, and yet where is the outrage at this?

Ultimately money is a commodity and it can always be re-earned and eventually spent in a way that seems more appropriate to others. There will always be philantropists, some may not be particularly inclined towards humans..

But ultimately, it's not right to challenge her wishes after the fact. This would set a precendent saying that 'we the people' have to agree to what you do with your money once your dead. If she was alive and did this, nobody would dare to challenge her legally and suggest she didn't have the right. Why should it make a difference now that she's dead? Only because she can't argue back is this even an issue.

[JME2]

Considering this is the woman who spent $1.4 million just on a mausoleum for her burial, I'm not in the least bit surprised by this.

[Sriad]

The BEST thing for her to do with the money would be not earn 75% of it by being decent to her employees and customers.

That said, I'm pretty sure there are about a hundred less deserving charitable causes that money could have gone to: right-wing nut religious groups spring to mind; there are a hundred money whoring ways her relatives could squirrel it away in hedge funds or oil speculation.

When someone donates a hundred or a thousand dollars to a local Humane Society or volunteers two hundred hours in a year I don't have an issue with it. I support wolf-dog rescue programs and sometimes Animal Planet's animal-rescue cop shows make me tear up a bit. We made dogs what they are.

It's no Gates Foundation, but it is ultimately one of many worthwhile causes.

[Guardsman Bass]

For all the people saying that it is absolutely vile that she chose to donate all her money to the welfare of dogs (I agree that specifically $12 million to her pet was probably a little asinine) - are you also saying that it is wrong for people to donate money to animal shelters and the Humane Society, since, after all, that money could be going to a food bank?

I don't recall there ever being a moral obligation to donate your fortune to charity or the good will of humanity, and society takes its cut in the form of inheritance tax.

There's nothing wrong to giving money to a Humane society and what not.

There's however something wrong with giving a dog a shit load of money that it will never even get a chance to spend even 10% of it.

Oh, I agree that the $12 million specifically for her dog is kind of excessive. Although, she probably wanted to ensure that somebody would take care of her dog for the rest of its life - perhaps she set it up so that the people taking care of the dog get access to the money as long as the dog is cared for properly?

[Alyrium Denryle]

For all the people saying that it is absolutely vile that she chose to donate all her money to the welfare of dogs (I agree that specifically $12 million to her pet was probably a little asinine) - are you also saying that it is wrong for people to donate money to animal shelters and the Humane Society, since, after all, that money could be going to a food bank?

I don't recall there ever being a moral obligation to donate your fortune to charity or the good will of humanity, and society takes its cut in the form of inheritance tax.

There's nothing wrong to giving money to a Humane society and what not.

There's however something wrong with giving a dog a shit load of money that it will never even get a chance to spend even 10% of it.

Oh, I agree that the $12 million specifically for her dog is kind of excessive. Although, she probably wanted to ensure that somebody would take care of her dog for the rest of its life - perhaps she set it up so that the people taking care of the dog get access to the money as long as the dog is cared for properly?

That is probably most likely... if we assume sanity.

[The Kernel]

People who are saying that this donation is a travesty can go fuck themselves. She wasn't obligated to donate money in the first place, and anyone who watches a couple episodes of Animal Cops will realize that animal welfare is in serious need of additional funding.

Christ people, it's charity. She can give it to whomever the fuck she pleases, even if she is a bit of a moonbat. As a dog lover and owner though, I appreciate the sentiment of the donation.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Well, if it's used to do massive spay/neuter programmes and eradicate rabies, which can infect humans, it would actually have some real benefit. Also, dogs are just tame wolves, so let's make sure that wolf recovery programmes get a share of the money too.

[Sea Skimmer]

Dogs are domesticated wolves, not tamed, that’s a big difference that can get a person killed.