Animals – 1, Children – 0
An elderly woman in China has decided to leave her fortune to her cats and dogs rather than her children.
You may’ve seen cats and dogs battle it out against one another in the 2001 Warner Bros. spy-comedy release, but how about furry babies vs. human children? Not quite as catchy, is it?
Well, unfortunately for the human children of Ms Liu, from Shanghai, they weren’t even given a second opportunity to try and outperform her pets, having already been written out of her will with the four-legged creatures in line for her money and property – and it’s not just a few crumbs, the cats are set up for far longer than just their nine lives.
Ms Liu’s initial will stated that all her money and property would go to her three human children, South Morning China Post reports.
However, as a result of her children allegedly neglecting to come and visit her in her old age or see her when she became ill, Ms Liu decided to make some rather controversial amendments.
With her children reportedly nowhere to be seen during her period of ill health, Ms Liu relied instead on her pets – a collection of cats and dogs, as per Zonglan News.
And so grateful was Ms Liu to her pets she decided to remove her human children from her will and replace them with her furry babies instead.
While her children were left outraged to be snubbed by a group of animals, what made the change of the will even more painful was the fact Ms Liu was leaving the animals a hefty fortune.
Yep, the cats and dogs were more than just set for life, with Ms Liu leaving them a whopping 20 million yuan ($2.8 million).
Alas, there was one pretty major issue – in China, it’s not legal to leave an inheritance to animals.
Ms Liu appointed a local veterinary clinic to take care of the animals should she pass away and act as the administrator of the inheritance.
As a result of the unusual circumstances, officials are having to dive deeper into ‘alternatives to solve this issue’ said Chen Kai, who works as an official in the national headquarters of China’s Will Registration Centre in Beijing.
The official said: “Liu’s current will is one way, and we would have advised her to appoint a person she trusts to supervise the vet clinic to ensure the pets are properly cared for.”