Millionaire Dog Flees Death Threats: Report

NEW YORK (AFP) - A pampered pooch who inherited 12 million dollars from a late US hotel magnate earlier this year has fled to Florida under an assumed name after receiving death threats, a report said Monday.

Trouble, a white Maltese who belonged to billionaire Leona Helmsley until her death in August, was flown by private jet under tight security two months ago after receiving around 20 such threats, the New York Post reported.

It said the rich bitch was now living at an undisclosed location in Florida, a favorite with retirees escaping the winter, without naming its sources.

The paper did not say who was suspected of being behind the threats, but Trouble is said to have earned countless enemies due to a penchant for biting.

John Codey, who is in charge of the pampered pooch's trust fund, told US television network CBS last week that there had been threats to kidnap the dog.

He added that the cost of Trouble's round-the-clock security detail, medical care, chef-cooked meals and grooming were an estimated 300,000 dollars a year. The dog was previously living at a 28-room estate in Connecticut.

When Trouble dies, any remaining money from her trust will go to the charitable foundations that inherited the lion's share of Helmsley's estimated four-billion-dollar estate.

Helmsley, dubbed the "Queen of Mean" by the tabloid press, cut two grandchildren out of her will while leaving five million to two others on the proviso that they visit their late father's grave at least once a year.

Helmsley's will also stipulates that when Trouble dies she is to be buried beside her and her late husband Harry, who died in 1997.