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Helmsley Cash Doesn't Have to Go to Dogs

Judge nixes late Queen of Mean's mission statement

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 26, 2009 3:03 AM CST

(Newser) – Leona Helmsley's fortune won't be going exclusively to canine charities after all, the New York Times reports. A judge decided yesterday that the famously prickly late hotelier's instruction in her will that all of her $8 billion go toward helping dogs was not binding, clearing the way for the trustees managing her estate to distribute the cash to a wide range of charities.

A Humane Society spokesman said the cancellation of pooch payday was disappointing, although not unexpected. The mission statement in Helmsley's will "certainly signaled a clear intent on Mrs. Helmsley’s part to see the money used to help dogs," he said. The trustees aim to start making grants next month and they announced a variety of human causes they plan to help.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Leona Helmsley flashes a trademark grimace in New York in this 2003 file photo. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File)

Leona Helmsley and her dog Trouble pose in Helmsley's Park Lane Hotel apartment in New York in 2003. (AP Photo/Jennifer Graylock)

Leona Helmsley and her dog Trouble stop for a photo in Leona Helmsley's Park Lane Hotel apartment in 2003. (AP Photo/Jennifer Graylock)

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The animal welfare sector in the United States and abroad is chronically underfunded, and just the annual interest thrown off by an estate this large could do a tremendous amount of good. - Humane Society of the United States policy adviser Bernard Unti

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Helmsley Cash Doesn't Have to Go to Dogs