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While animal welfare volunteers in the Gouves
Township continue in its, so far,
futile campaign for at least miniscule funds to provide the barest
animal welfare shelter, stray dogs in
United States are the recipients of a
multi billion-euro windfall.
We
all remember the story, reported in these pages last November, of
American real estate magnate Leona Helmsley leaving $12 million in her
will to her dog, Trouble.
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Well, as it turned out, that was only the tip of monetary iceberg. Her
instructions, specified recently in a two-page “mission statement,” are
that the entire trust, valued at $5 billion to $8 billion, be used for
the care and welfare of dogs.
Even
at today’s devastating exchange rate for the dollar, that’s a heck of a
lot of loot – something in the neighbourhood of 4 billion euros!
The
trust is worth almost 10 times the combined assets of all 7,381
animal-related non-profit groups registered with the U.S. government.
There are many ways the trustees could spend the money on dogs. National
groups like the Humane Society of the United States and the American
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have programs dedicated
to dogs, and many smaller local groups rescue abandoned and abused dogs.
Or
the trustees could use the money to finance veterinary schools or
sponsor research on canine diseases.
Unfortunately, there was not one mention, even in the statement’s “fine
print,” about any of the animal welfare money finding its way to the Gouves
Township.
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