Lives in a mansion, has a private chef and travels by limousine: the story of Gunther, the richest dog in the world

On February 1, Netflix will premiere Gunther the millionaire dog. The first thing that someone might think when reading the title of the miniseries is that it will be another dog comedy. But with a few seconds of investigation (just read the synopsis) this could be understood Gunther exists and that he is the richest animal in the world.

Gunther VI is a German Shepherd who lives in Miami and amasses a fortune of approximately $400 million.

He owns a yacht, lodging in Italy, and usually travels by private jets and limousines, sleeping on velvet beds, wading in the pool, and eating the best meats for breakfast prepared by a private chef. He is said to be in charge of 27 employees.

Most of the day she works on obedience skills and spends it in her room. Her villa, built in 1928, has nine bedrooms and eight bathrooms and overlooks the sea.

A curiosity about his legacy: according to a compilation made by All About Cats, Gunther VI is followed in the ranking of the most millionaire animals by Nala Catwhich has 300 million, and for Olivia Benssonsinger Taylor Swift’s cat, who owns 97.

Before we look at how he inherited his fortune, let’s clear a few things up.

How can dogs inherit?

Dogs (animals in general) they cannot own financial assets, but can inherit them through pet trusts set up by their owners.

The trustee determines how much and when the fund’s money is spent, while a primary caregiver takes those payments and is directly responsible for your well-being.

An executor named in the will or appointed by a court ensures that the trust is managed properly and that the funds are used only in the best interests of the beneficiary, which in this case is the animal.

Dog owners sometimes limit the trustee’s ability to withdraw money from the pet fund to a number of years to prevent fraud.

In many cases, when the pet dies, the people in charge of managing the fund replace it with another one just to keep drawing on the wealth.

And how did Gunther make his fortune?

It would all go back to his grandfather, Gunther III, the German shepherd who would inherit the German countess’s fortune Charlotte Liebenstein in 1992.

Since Liebenstein would be left without heirs after his son’s death, he would have decided to donate his wealth to his faithful pet. The dog was then said to be the owner of $80 million.

The Gunther estate grew thanks to the investments of the Gunther VI dealer, Maurice Mianwho was reportedly a friend of Karlotta’s son and a member of a wealthy Italian family that owned a powerful pharmaceutical company.

Is this all a joke?

not for sure. In 2021, Gunther VI became known for selling the former palace of Madonna in Miami for about 30 million dollars, almost three times the value of what was acquired in the 2000s.

That’s why the queen of pop uploaded a photo to Instagram that year joking that a dog had managed to sell her former mansion for a much higher sum than she got when she got rid of the property.

With the theme in orbit, Associated press (AP) conducted an investigation which established this the story of Gunther VI and the trust fund had been used as a publicity stunt to mislead journalism.

For AP, Gunther VI and his predecessors were fakes, as they found no evidence of the existence of the German countess. Karlotta, they understood, was “just an invention to advertise the philosophy” of Mian’s founding.

But the Italian tycoon spoke up, and while he claimed his confessions about the Contessa were false, he claimed the stories about the dogs were true.

AP clarified that it was Gunther Corp., the trust, buyer and seller of Madonna’s mansion, but implied that “the role of the dog appears to be little more than a decades-old joke.”