Landmark Helmsley Legal Trust Challenge by America's Three Pre-Eminent Animal Welfare...

Landmark Helmsley Legal Trust Challenge by America's Three Pre-Eminent Animal
Welfare Organizations

HSUS, ASPCA, and Maddie's Fund Charge That Helmsley Trustees Are Misdirecting
Funds Despite Clear Direction from Late Heiress to Help Dogs

NEW YORK, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Three of the country's most
prominent animal welfare organizations -- in what they are terming the most
significant financial litigation in animal welfare history -- have filed suit
in New York's Surrogate Court to intervene in the matter of Leona Helmsley's
$5 billion estate.

The groups are seeking to force the Helmsley Trustees to follow Mrs.
Helmsley's expressed intent to help dogs. According to the groups, less than
$100,000 of the initial $136 million Helmsley grants have gone to dog welfare.

"Mrs. Helmsley's Trust Agreement and Mission Statement were clear: Help dogs.
And the Trustees have not done this, and instead pursued their own agendas
with Mrs. Helmsley's money," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The
Humane Society of the United States. "Every person with a will or estate, and
every charity that relies on bequest income, should be profoundly concerned
about this misdirection of funds."

The three organizations believe that State Attorneys General have a
responsibility to protect the wishes of any heir or heiress, and also to
protect the entire charitable sector from the whims of trustees who wish to
ignore detailed and unambiguous estate planning instructions. In this case,
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo failed in his charge to protect these
interests.

"Literally hundreds of millions of dollars that have been willed by people
nationally, who cared about dogs, have not gone to provide for dogs as was
intended," said Rich Avanzino, president of Maddie's Fund. "The ignoring of
donor intent in this country has become an unspoken national shame.

"With $5 billion at stake this is a game changer. We want to work with the
Helmsley trustees to arrive at a figure that is consistent with Mrs.
Helmsley's intentions and would change injustices in dog care and welfare
overnight.

"For instance, even a small fraction of this money makes it possible to
virtually empty all animal shelters in America of dogs without homes."

"There has been a sea change in recent years in how we treat animals and the
Helmsley trustees don't understand that change," said Ed Sayres, president and
CEO of the ASPCA. "Mrs. Helmsley understood the importance of animal welfare
and was determined to help. She had a vision for her worldly estate to make
our society a better place for dogs and animals, and consequently, people. We
want that noble cause to go forward. Dogs give us so much in our lives, and
the least we can do is make sure they are not harmed, exploited, or neglected,
and the Helmsley estate allows us to do so. It is not an overstatement to say
that the fate of dogs in this country could very well rest on the decision of
this lawsuit."

The trustees went to court last fall to invalidate Mrs. Helmsley's express
wishes, asking the Court to declare that they "are not bound by the expression
of Decedent's wishes...."

The Trustees disregarded Mrs. Helmsley's wishes and obtained court sanction
for doing so. The process deprived the parties most affected by their decision
-- dog welfare charities -- of any fair opportunity to have a say on the
issue. Neither the Trustees nor the Attorney General contacted any of these
three nonprofit organizations, which are widely recognized as the leading
advocates for dog welfare in the country if not the world -- or any other
organization that might speak up on behalf of the charitable community that
Mrs. Helmsley had a right to expect would receive "special emphasis" in the
Trustees' grant-making.

After a judicial ruling without hearing from the only charitable category of
recipients specifically listed in Mrs. Helmsley's mission statement, the
trustees distributed the initial round of grants from Mrs. Helmsley's trust,
blatantly disregarding Mrs. Helmsley's express wishes. The trustees allocated
less than .1 percent to dog welfare charities.

"These three leading organizations tried to reach an amicable solution with
the trustees; unfortunately, the trustees were unwilling to discuss this with
us. Now these organizations are forced to resort to litigation to correct this
abuse," Pacelle said.

They have filed a motion to intervene and vacate the initial order.

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal
protection organization -- backed by 11 million Americans, or one of every 28.
For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of
all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating
animals and confronting cruelty -- On the Web at humanesociety.org.

Founded in 1866, the ASPCA(R) (The American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals(R)) is the first humane organization established in the
Americas and serves as the nation's leading voice for animal welfare. One
million supporters strong, the ASPCA's mission is to provide effective means
for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States. As a
501 [c] [3] not-for-profit corporation, the ASPCA is a national leader in the
areas of anti-cruelty, community outreach and animal health services. The
ASPCA, which is headquartered in New York City, offers a wide range of
programs, including a mobile clinic outreach initiative, its own humane law
enforcement team, and a groundbreaking veterinary forensics team and mobile
animal CSI unit. For more information, please visit www.aspca.org.

Maddie's Fund,(R) The Pet Rescue Foundation, (www.maddiesfund.org) is a family
foundation funded by Workday and PeopleSoft Founder Dave Duffield and his
wife, Cheryl. Maddie's Fund is helping to create a no-kill nation where all
healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats are guaranteed a loving home.The
foundation is named after the family's beloved Miniature Schnauzer who passed
away in 1997.

SOURCE ASPCA

Jim Yeager, breakwhitelight public relations, +1-818-264-6812, for the Humane
Society of the United States; Heather Sullivan of the Humane Society of the
United States, +1-301-548-7778, hsullivan@humanesociety.org; Andy Izquierdo of
the ASPCA, +1-917-484-0240, AndyI@aspca.org; or Lynn Spivak of Maddie's Fund,
+1-510-337-8979, cell: +1-707-304-4146, spivak@maddiesfund.org