Sears Catalogs Once Sold Monkeys, Donkeys and Other Animals? | Snopes.com

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Sears offered live animals through its mail-order catalogs from 1956 to 1964. However, versions of those catalogs — possibly including an alleged 1956 Sears Christmas book featured in popular TikTok videos — did not include animals for sale.

A series of TikTok videos claims to show a 1956 Sears holiday catalog featuring live animals for sale via mail order.

Comments on the videos are equal parts nostalgia and surprise, with writings like, "Kids now a days will never experience the joy of looking through the toy catalog and circling the things you wanted for x-mas!" Another replied, "Yep. Had a neighbor who bought a monkey. It would get loose and my brother would have to climb the trees to get it!"

"My parents must have torn out the pet pages. I don't remember them," said someone else.

(moretoysmorejoys on TikTok)

It's true that Sears used to sell animals via mail order, based on a review of catalog archives, newspaper clippings and the book "Pets in America: A History" by historian Katherine Grier. From monkeys and donkeys to common pets like dogs, birds and fish, live pets were offered in Sears catalogs issued between 1956 and 1964.

However, versions of Sears catalogs during that era — possibly including the alleged 1956 Sears Christmas book featured in the TikTok videos — did not include animals for sale. (Sears Christmas books were holiday catalogs the retailer produced between 1933 and the early 2000s.)

According to a 1955 article by The New York Times, Sears' 1956 spring/summer catalog was the first to feature animals:

Sears Roebuck & Co. said today its 1956 spring and summer catalogue … For the first time in any Sears catalogue live Mexican burros for the children are offered. The Chicago and Kansas City edition also list hamster, mynah birds and four varieties of monkeys.

Of the monkeys the catalogue says, "we include collar and chain with each monkey for easier handling.

(1956 Sears spring/summer catalog, courtesy christmas.musetechnical.com)

By the 1960s, mail-order animals had long been a viable business, according to "Pets in America: A History." Of Sears' foray into the industry, Grier writes:

The most startling experiment in mail-order pets took place almost a half-century later, however, when Sears Roebuck and Company and Spiegel, which called itself "The Nation's Pet Shop," both offered full pet departments in their catalogs. The spring and summer 1958 Spiegel Home Shopping Book not only offered forty-six different breeds of pedigreed puppies but also raccoon cubs, descented baby skunks, mynah birds and several species of monkeys. Sears added toucans, fancy pigeons, and flying squirrels to the list. Shetland ponies and Mexican burros ("$67.50 cash. Only $13.50 down") were available for purchase on installment by both companies, just like the appliances, tools, and furniture offered elsewhere in their catalogs.

("Pets in America: A History" by Katherine C. Grier, 2006).

The trend only lasted a handful of years. Beginning with Sears' 1963 fall/winter catalog, only monkeys, mynah birds and hamsters were offered — no other types of pets — based on the catalog archives. And by the following year, the catalog featured only pet supplies, no live animals.

Combing through an online archive of Sears catalogs published between 1956 and 1964, as well as editions available via the Internet Archive, Snopes found a 1956 Christmas book — though its pages did not match those in the TikTok videos, nor list animals for sale. We reached out to the original poster of the footage to seek evidence to confirm the alleged catalog's authenticity.

In fact, there does not appear to be any online evidence of pets for sale in Christmas books that Sears issued between 1956 and 1964.

However, Sears' biannual catalogs during that time — catalogs the retailer issued in the spring/summer and fall/winter months — included pets for sale.

(1956 Sears fall/winter catalog, courtesy christmas.musetechnical.com)

It's possible that some Sears catalogs in the 1950s and 1960s offered animals for sale while others didn't because they were printed in different locations. An area might have a different availability of animals — or local restrictions on such sales — compared to others. For example, the aforementioned clip by The New York Times said two editions of a catalog had different animals to offer, saying, "The Chicago and Kansas City edition also list hamster, mynah birds and four varieties of monkeys."

The covers of the alleged 1956 Christmas book in the TikTok videos and the 1956 Christmas book we found are nearly identical. There's just one difference: They list different addresses for where they were supposedly printed. The purported book on TikTok lists 925 S. Homan Ave., Chicago, Illinois. That was the headquarters of Sears Roebuck & Co until 1973 and where the printing plant for catalogs was located for many years, according to the National Historic Landmarks Program. Meanwhile, the version of the 1956 Christmas book available on the Internet Archive features an address of 2465 Utah Ave., Seattle, Washington — a former location for Sears' mail-order operations. (The location is now the Starbucks Center, or Starbucks Coffee Company's corporate headquarters.)

(1956 Sears spring/summer catalog, courtesy christmas.musetechnical.com)

Snopes reached out to Transformco, Sears' parent company, for information regarding Sears' history of mail-order pets and why some catalogs in the 1950s and 1960s offered them while others didn't. We also reached out to the administrators of the online database of Sears catalogs. We will update this report if we receive responses.