In the days following the assassination of House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman, the organization where she trained her service dog dropout, Gilbert, became an outlet for Minnesotans’ grief.
A flurry of donations brought in more than $100,000 for Helping Paws in the weeks after Hortman was killed alongside her husband Mark Hortman, which prosecutors say was a targeted political murder. The couple’s dog, Gilbert, was shot in the attack and later euthanized.
With the support, Helping Paws announced Monday it will establish the Hortman Heroes Fund in honor of Melissa, Mark and Gilbert. The organization’s executive director, Alyssa Golob, said she hopes the fund will allow Helping Paws to double the number of dogs it trains and graduates each year and cut down on its three-year waitlist.
“I think we were a place where people could put their grief and feel like they were able to do something and help to keep Melissa’s legacy alive,” Golob said.
It’s the biggest influx of funds Helping Paws has received, Golob said.
Gilbert, a 4-year-old golden retriever, joined the family through Helping Paws and was a constant companion for the Hortmans. While he was supposed to go on to become a working service dog like the one the Hortmans trained through Helping Paws before him, Gilbert was too friendly and became their beloved pet instead.
He was well known to Hortman’s colleagues at the Capitol, often jumping on her during Zoom meetings. At a public memorial for the couple, an urn encircled with paw prints held Gilbert’s ashes in a place of honor between the Hortmans’ caskets.
Following the Hortmans’ killings, their children, Sophie and Colin Hortman, encouraged Minnesotans hoping to honor their parents’ memory to pet a dog. “A golden retriever is ideal,” they said, “but any will do.”
