The dogs are nipping at the heels of Leona Helmsley’s multibillion-dollar estate.
More than 30 animal-rescue groups have written letters to the judge presiding over the administration of the late Queen of Mean’s fortune, asking that she help carry out Helmsley’s request that her money go to the dogs.
Helmsley died in 2007, leaving the majority of her $8 billion fortune to a charitable trust to be administered by close friends and relatives for “purposes related to the provision of care for dogs.”
But when the trust started doling out her cash earlier this year, only $1 million of the first $136 million in grants went to canine causes.
The ASPCA, the Humane Society and Maddie’s Fund filed suit in Surrogate’s Court in August, charging the trustees had turned up their noses at Helmsley’s directions.
The trustees “clearly didn’t act, or even pretend to act, to benefit the more discrete special interest identified by Mrs. Helmsley,” according to the groups’ filing.
But the trustees note Helmsley’s mission statement for the trust gives them “sole discretion” to distribute her cash.