Toys 'R' Us' Geoffrey Offered a New Gig

San Antonio Zoo trying to convince toy chain to donate mascot to further giraffe conservation
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 4, 2018 11:03 AM CDT
Zoo Has Job Offer for Unemployed Toys 'R' Us Mascot
In this 1996 file photo, a woman pushes a shopping cart over a graphic of Toys R Us mascot Geoffrey the giraffe at the store in Raritan, NJ.   (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer, File)

With the closing of all US Toys 'R' Us stores, mascot Geoffrey is headed for the unemployment line. But not so fast: The San Antonio Zoo wants the defunct toy chain to shift its famous giraffe to a new gig, that of conservation ambassador for, well, giraffes. As CNN reports, the zoo wants Toys 'R' Us to donate the rights to Geoffrey so that he can use his celebrity to preserve the fewer than 100,000 of his flesh-and-blood brethren left on the planet.

"This is a chance for Geoffrey and the great people at Toys 'R' Us to leave a legacy gift that has the potential to change the world and bring smiles to children for generations to come," the zoo writes in a GoFundMe seeking to raise $100,000. It has a ways to go: It's at about $1,300 as of this writing. (An anonymous shopper recently bought out an entire Toys 'R' Us for $1 million.)

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