Trouble's Fund

The animal world is buzzing with the possibility of what the Leona Helmsley bequest of $8 million will do for the dogs of this country. Over at HSUS, Wayne Pacelle is lobbying long and hard as are all the other animal welfare organizations. In the abstract I don't blame any of them--it is a huge sum of money and one that might well change the lives of millions of animals, not to mention eliminate the fund raising obligations of which ever organization ultimately benefits from the bequest.

But I do hope that the Trustees of the Helmsley estate do not put all their eggs in one basket--that is, make one organization the sole beneficiary of the bequest. I know it seems a bit of a cop out to divide it between groups but the truth of the matter is that there are many organizations out there that are already doing good work on behalf of the nation's dogs. How do you choose just one?

I also hope that they do not create a new organization (perhaps Trouble's Fund) that merely replicates what already exists. It would be a sincere waste for a significant portion of the funds to go to start up and administrative costs that are already functioning elsewhere. Why reinvent the wheel?

It is also a shame that the money is earmarked specifically for dogs--just think of what a sum like that could do for species everywhere.

If they asked me, I would probably suggest funding research on canine cancer since more dogs than people get cancer every year. Research into canine cancer also indirectly benefits humans since dogs get many of the same cancers that people do. An already existing trial of a vaccine for lymphoma has proved remarkably successful in dogs and shows promise for people. It just seems to make sense to treat dogs who already have cancer with human drugs rather than inject mice with the disease to test these same treatments.

I actually think it may be some time before we see how this entire bequest plays out. You can be sure there will be much haggling among lawyers about what she meant or did not mean and it is indeed a shame that in this case, Trouble cannot speak for herself.