Animal Relief Fund: Scales & Tales Sanctuary

Please consider donating anything you are able to help us maintain and upkeep over 200 animals with good health for the next year. Any extra funds will go towards helping others maintain their own pets and or help us with the increasing intake of new animals to the sanctuary.   It is such a sad day for Scales and Tales Traveling Zoo and The Insect Asylum. For those of you who don't know us, we are a group of animal enthusiasts who host educational children's programs and maintain an animal sanctuary that has been operating in the Chicago area for over 31 years. We perform a one hour, hands on educational show to children in schools,  places of worship, libraries,  parks districts, birthday parties, boys and girls clubs, cubscouts and girl scouts, ect. We also set up labs and educational booths at public events to spread our knowledge.  We feel that we provide an essential service to the area by establishing meaningful connection to Mother Earth through some of it's most incredible creatures.  In the past we have been able to sustain our organization from the shows we host and have never reached out for assistance.  In all our time as a business we have never been at such a critical state. It humbles us to even consider reaching out but at this point we are unsure of how much our sanctuary will be affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.  At the moment we are home to over 200 animals and insects. We took a huge loss this year with the Chicago teachers strike and have been struggling to stay afloat. We have fought hard to keep our costs low to allow our programs to reach as many underprivileged youth as possible.  Even after the strike we worked alongside schools to reduce our rates to adjust for funding.  We rely on these shows to cover the high cost involved with caring for so many exotic animals. We feed our animals fresh diets and handmake a majority of our foods inhouse.  But the cost for bedding,  hay, straw, pine shavings, compressed newspaper shavings, laundry,  utilities (we keep the facilities at 80+ degrees year round)  humidity, water,  building overhead, animal handlers to help with feeding and cleaning and mental stimulation/ personal engagement,  vet appointments,  ect... all adds up. People are also forfeiting their animals due to lack of ability to care for them and we are not saying no. We just took in ferrets this week.  With this outbreak we need help. All of our shows are cancelled for at least the next two months.  Due to the fact that our business relies on social engagement and funding we will probably be out of business for shows for a while the economy balances back out. We are not planning on rehoming any animals and we are willing to help other families who cannot care for their own animals at this time.  We will get through this together.  Anyone who donates will get a one of the following: handmade button, sticker, personalized thankyou card from our animals,  or a peice of animal related art made by Nina. We can also provide video classes for anyone interested in animal sciences.  (Please provide contact information for your animal present)  please stay safe and snuggle your favorite animal friends.