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Friday, January 13, 2017

Salisbury Zoo Seeking Christmas Tree Donations

SALISBURY – Caretakers with the Salisbury Zoo are coming up short in gathering old Christmas trees for animal exhibits within the facility.

Jessica O’Neill, zookeeper, said the trees enhance the animals’ wellbeing and provides them with a source of entertainment.

“So the Christmas tree is a form of enrichment,” she said. “Enrichment is anything that is given to an animal that they don’t (get) on a daily basis. It can be anything from a novel food item to a scent to a puzzle feeder.”

The zoo traditionally receives Christmas tree donations from local hardwood stores in the area, according to O’Neill. Yet, this year the facility received less than the typical year.

“In the past, stores have donated trees, but this year they didn’t have any to give us,” she said. “We have a few trees so they will be given to some of the animals for enrichment.”

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4 comments:

Joe Lunchbox said...

Can this get more stupid? Doesn't the Zoo have 10 employees who know about Christmas? Is the whole thing that effing important? Do animals in the wild need christmas trees once a year? If they celebrate Christmas, which animals are Agnostic or Jewish? Would these trees offend them?

Sorry, but this is so over the top, it's disgusting.

Anonymous said...

This would have been helpful to know LAST WEEK! The twelve days of Christmas ends with Epiphany on Jan 6th. If people didn't have their trees down before then, they sure do now.

Just a drive around a few neighborhoods with a pickup truck last week could have gotten all they wanted.

Anonymous said...

Could you be any more of a jerk?

Anonymous said...

Will they take artificial trees?