In her will, Rhoda Hogan gave $125,000 (USD) to: “An organization to be used to publicize and educate the public about the cruel effect of de-clawing cats and to support legislation forbidding it.”
I have to conclude that Rhoda was a cat lover. She cared deeply about cat welfare, it seems to me. I am told by Lori of the City the Kitty website that Rhoda wanted her a lot of her savings to be used in the furtherance of cat welfare.
Rhoda died in 2006. At this time The Paw Project was in existence and effectively fighting cat declawing. The Paw Project is the premier organisation in the fight against declawing. It does not take much research to realise that.
The executor of Rhoda’s Will was an 81-year-old friend. The executor searched diligently, we are told, to find a recipient for the generous $125,000 legacy.
He selected four and asked them to put forward their proposals as to how they would spend the money. Clearly The Paw Project was not in the shortlist (update: I am told by Lori of citythekitty.com that they were on the shortlist – why weren’t they selected, therefore?).
The executor selected the Cornell Feline Health Center. This is part of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Right away you can see the dire mistake the executor made in selecting Cornell. They are linked to practicing veterinarians! Ninety-nine percent of veterinarians in the USA declaw cats and nearly all of them neither comply with their oath nor AVMA guidelines in ensuring that declawing is a last resort. A sizeable percentage of veterinarians quietly or actively (through discounts) promote declawing because it is profitable.
The executor of Rhoda’s Will had made a massive mistake. It was a fatal mistake. Cornell don’t even support the Bill going through New York state’s legislature to ban declawing (although of course this is happening well after the legacy was given to them). I am sure that they quietly support declawing because they support veterinarians.
Rhoda would be turning in her grave if she knew her executor had given her money to people who silently support declawing, the exact opposite to her wishes.
Cornell created six short and rather feeble videos with the money. I am told that the videos are on YouTube and Cornell’s VeritasDVM site. My searches on both sites could not find the videos. I am yet to see them. I am told they are of poor quality and have not been seen widely or extensively. We don’t know how else the money was used as they won’t tell Lori.
Cornell are being secretive. To me that means one thing: they have misused the legacy. If they don’t like that assessment – tough.
This is a very sad tale. It does show how the veterinarians and the colleges who turn out veterinarians conspire to keep a stranglehold on the obnoxious procedure called “declawing” which as we all know is a misdescription and a euphemism for the mass amputation of the tips of ten toes (the bone and claw beyond the last joint is removed) for the convenience of cat owners and to make money, tons of it, for the vets.
You can read Lori’s article here – the source other than myself of this article.
There are hundreds of hard-hitting declawing articles on PoC. I hate declawing with a vengeance.
This is a another good reminder to me to be extra careful regarding which organizations I leave my money to. If I want to leave, say, $50,000 to each of a number of them, how can I make sure they’ll use it wisely? Is there any transparency or oversight as to how they’ve done in the past?
There is always a risk the executor will screw up. No one checks up on them except the beneficiaries. Often the executor is also one of the beneficiaries. I am sure millions of dollars over centuries have been stolen by executors or the money given away unwisely! One answer is to make sure the Will is very specific and not to give discretion to the executor.
This is a horrible misuse of her legacy. I will share this information far and wide, on my personal Facebook page, and my CAT Advocate page, Twitter, and any other cat sites I belong to. It’s also unfortunate that there seem to be no living relatives to question Cornell.
I hope that other readers will share this.