Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Woman leaves £100k to Edinburgh Zoo's Penguins and Chimps

Edinburgh Zoo's penguins have benefited from Miss Laing's generosity. Picture: Ian Rutherford
Edinburgh Zoo's penguins have benefited from Miss Laing's generosity. Picture: Ian Rutherford
  • by BART DICKSON
AN ANIMAL loving woman ordered a slice of her £3.8 million fortune be set aside for penguins and chimpanzees at Edinburgh Zoo.

Patricia Laing gifted £100,000 with the express wish that it be used to care for its world-famous penguins and chimps.

Miss Laing, of Edinburgh, died aged 96 in March this year.

Her published will revealed she had ammassed a massive estate worth a staggering £3,792,790.79 by the time of her death.

The retired clerical assistant had never married and lived in Edinburgh all her life until moving into a care home in the capital in her later years.

It has now emerged she has left the bulk of her fortune to good causes with 31 separate legacies to be handed over to charities.

But she asked that money be given to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and used at Edinburgh Zoo ‘for the care of animals, especially the penguins and chimps.’

The Zoo first opened its gates in 1913 and is home to the UK’s only pair of giant pandas and the much-loved daily penguin parade.

The penguin parade came about by accident in the 1950s after a keeper left a gate to the penguin pool open by mistake and was followed around the zoo by a gang of penguins.

The spectacle went down so well with visitors that it became a regular occurrence.

source

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