Posted on August 18, 2009 by Nancy Houser

The late tyrannical “Queen of Mean” billionaire Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley, is once again in the public eye regarding her estate which she left to her dog Troubles. Passing away at the age of 87 to congestive heart failure, she had left her Maltese dog a $12 million dollar trust fund which was later reduced to $2 million by a judge with the other $10 million to her charitable foundation. The dog lives in Florida with Carl Lekic, general manager of the Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel while receiving a $600,000 annual guardian fee for its care plus $2 million left for the care of Troubles.

Presently three of the largest animal welfare groups are accusing Helmsley’s Estate of depriving dog welfare charities of their stake. This involves the trust, originally valued at $5 to $8 million which was reduced to $1 million in April 21, 2009 by the Estate. The Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and Maddie’s Fund filed a petition in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court “arguing that Helmsley, who died in 2007, specified in her will that her multibillion-dollar estate should be used to help dogs, and the trustees disregarded those wishes.”

The three groups want a judge’s February decision that allowed the trustees for the Helmsley Charitable Trust the sole authority to determine which charities would benefit from her estate. ASPCA Board Chairwoman Marsha Perelman said that kind of money would be “game changing” for animal-welfare groups. “Almost 2 million dogs are needlessly euthanized in this country every year,” Perelman said. “If funds from the Helmsley estate were available to address this problem, this problem could be made to disappear.”

The Maltese bitch Trouble entered Leona Helsmey’s life after her husband died, with directions the dog should be “buried next to my remains in the Helmsley Mausoleum,” at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, in Westchester County. The bulk of the estate after her death was left to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, one of the top ten or so U.S. charitable foundations. The estate was to allow $12 million dollar to trouble, which was changed after her death. The mission statement of the Estate, was to make expenditures for “purposes related to the provision of care for dog.”

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• The pet trust and pet will after the owner dies
• Dogs who are on welfare
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