Claim: In the 1950s and 1960s, Sears catalogs offered dogs, ponies, monkeys and other animals for purchase from its mail order catalogs. Their rating? [S]
From 1956 through 1964, Sears offered live animals through its mail-order catalogs; however, some versions (such as an alleged 1956 Sears Christmas book replete with TikTok videos ) of those catalogs did not feature animals for sale.
TikTok videos purporting to depict a 1956 Sears holiday catalog featuring live animals for mail order are being shared online by users.
As seen on these videos, comments from viewers on them vary between nostalgia and shock; with writing such as, “Kids today will never experience the joy of browsing toy catalogs and marking their favorites for Christmas!” and another responding with: “Had a neighbor with a monkey that would get loose often requiring my brother to climb trees to retrieve him!!”
“My parents must have torn out all my pet pages; I don’t remember seeing any,” stated another individual.
Based on reviews of Sears catalog archives, newspaper clippings and Katherine Grier’s book “Pets in America: A History”, live pets such as monkeys and donkeys as well as more common ones such as dogs, birds and fish were available through mail order from 1956 until 1964 through their mail-order catalogs.
However, Sears catalogs from that era — possibly including the 1956 Sears Christmas book mentioned in TikTok videos — did not feature animals for sale. (Sears Christmas books were holiday catalogs produced between 1933 and the early 2000s by Sears.)
According to an article in 1955 from The New York Times, Sears’ 1956 spring/summer catalog was the first one ever featuring animals; these features can still be found today in some products offered through Sears.
Sears Roebuck & Company today unveiled its 1956 spring and summer catalogue with live Mexican burros for children available for the first time ever… The Chicago and Kansas City edition also include live hamsters, mynah birds, four varieties of monkeys as well as other animal offerings.
“To provide easier handling,” according to the catalogue’s words about their monkeys, collar and chain are included with each monkey for easier manipulation.
Grier comments on Sears’ entry into this industry by noting: [56 Spring/Summer Catalog courtesy christmas.musetechnical.com] By the 1960s, mail order of animals had long been considered profitable business; Sears venture into it began during this era with their Spring/Summer catalog.”
Pets in America: A History by Katherine C. Grier (2006)). However, this trend only lasted briefly: it started with Sears’ 1963 fall/winter catalog offering only monkeys, mynah birds and hamsters (according to catalog archives); by 1967-68 their catalog featured exclusively pet supplies rather than actual live animals for sale.
Snopes explored an online archive of Sears catalogs published between 1956 and 1964 as well as editions available via Internet Archive to determine whether some Sears Catalogs may have sold animals; it found one book published during Christmas of 1956 which did not match TikTok videos and did not list animals for sale; therefore we reached out to original poster of footage to ascertain its legitimacy and confirm alleged authenticity of alleged catalog.
Since 1956 to 1964, Sears did not issue Christmas books offering pets for sale between 1956 and 1964; however, biannual catalogs issued between that time included them for sale.
(1956 Sears Fall/Winter Catalog, Courtesy christmas.musetechnical.com)
Some Sears catalogs in the 1950s and 60s could offer animals for sale while others did not; perhaps depending on where each catalog was printed; particular areas may have had different available animals — or restrictions — than others; according to The New York Times clip cited, two editions had different animals on sale than others: these included “hamster, mynah birds and four varieties of monkeys (Chicago/Kansas City edition also offered).” For instance, according to one catalog edition offered four varieties of monkeys.”
Snopes reached out to Transformco, Sears’ parent company, for information regarding its history with mail-order pets during the 1950s and 1960s and why some catalogs offered them while others didn’t. We also reached out to administrators of an online database dedicated to Sears catalogs; once responses come through we will update this report accordingly.!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s).
No argument was passed to function() so return was returned from it as is usual for functions; so function was called with arguments supplied from user and used for calling method with parameters supplied from callMethod?.
CallMethod?, calling callMethod with arguments applied (num,arguments). Push(arguments). Push() may then push(argments). Push=n;n Push =n;loaded=!0;version =2.0 for version 2 as expected from above code and this resultant loop is as expected: [[[queue=[];t=b CreateElement(e); Asynchronous=!0;
T S R C =v and S=b GetElementsByTagName(e), where “e” could possibly return or “GetElementsByTagName(e), for which all required output will take place. ; until I get some error code returned during “PushChiliamReced”. Push = nodebug(0).” (depre)”); I can now create this function and iterator initerations will complete” until another version;
Insert before content(t,s). For an event page like Facebook Events: Created using https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js
Failed to load pages due to server issue
