In what has been heralded as one of the largest investments in animal protection, Leona Helmsley’s estate is to be used to improve the welfare of dogs. With the estate worth an estimated $5 to $8 billion, it has caused quite a stir – from animal advocates to those who wonder if the money is going to quite the right cause. The Humane Society of the United States, the largest animal protection organisation in the US, is unsurprisingly fully supportive of Leona’s fortune being used solely for helping animals.
Americans are renowned for their enthusiasm towards their pets and their love for animals – so much so that some pet owners even buy gifts for them on Valentine’s Day. There are countless examples of how crazy people are about pets in the US. They have an entire TV network dedicated to animals, they have created a whole range of sweets with a pet theme (’Sweethearts‘ – like Love Hearts in the UK), and they embrace an annual ‘take your dog to work day’. There appears to be more than a hint of truth behind this article from satirical magazine The Onion a few years ago: I’m a diseased and deformed animal lover!
Attitudes of pet owners in the US veer towards the pet being a fully fledged part of their family, as important as any other member. A couple of years ago a golden retriever accidentally killed a 6-year-old child. Rather than being euthanased as is the norm in such cases, the dog underwent a form of counselling. The animal center’s PR manager said the parents ‘did not want to lose another one of their children’ when asked why the dog was kept alive. Anyone who has a pet can sympathise with the tricky decision they faced I’m sure – a pet undeniably becomes part of your life. But should you really compare your pet to your child?
A different fraction of people claiming to stand up for animals, animal rights extremists, have been busy in America – this year has seen something of a peak in their activity against people using animals for medical studies. The North American Animal Liberation Press Office say in their latest newsletter ‘We do not encourage or call for the killing of (non-innocent) human beings, only state that we believe it may be part of the struggle for animal liberation’. It’s quite a revelation to see what lengths they could go to. Just last month a UCLA van went up in flames, with the Animal Liberation Front claiming it was their work, in protest against experiments on non-human primates.
Getting back to the Helmsley fortune, the ‘Queen of Mean’ has certainly lived up to her name for the grandchildren who were bequeathed precisely nothing – it does make you wonder if they’ll become animal lovers like their grandmother…
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