| police department take used stuffed animals. They give them to children in car crashes. |
Yeah eff those kids!! |
Really? So a child who is living in a home where one of their parents is being beat up on a daily basis, doesn't deserve a stuffed animal that is something they can truly call their own and have to comfort themselves? Instead, they should get a stuffed animal that might have stains on it, dried saliva, or are no longer soft anymore? Jeez. |
+1 It’s nice to donate but it bugs me people give their used stuff sometimes. Those kids do deserve a new stuffie. We have the most fun shopping for kids who are on the DSS angel tree. We get several lists and get those kids a FABULOUS CHRISTMAS. Quit cheaping out people. |
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Used stuffed animals are disgusting. Bedbugs, lice, saliva, germs, dust mites.
OP, I'm sure they trashed your donation. So weird that you thought someone would want your used stuffed animals. Does it make you feel better about your excess (100!) to pretend they weren't immediately thrown out? |
+1 Nothing makes people happier than helping the poors with their cast offs. How about buying things organizations need and donating? |
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Oh the ridiculousness. I too am looking to donate, not to a landfill, many stuffed animals.
They are fluffy, not adequately loved, like brand new, in a huge pile in my basement. Alas, no tags. No lice, viruses... I’d wash them so an errant dust mite might flea. I have a no more stuffed animals policy and they just keep showing up. Refuse to just throw them out. Realize there are millions of basements just like mine.
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There is a difference in what you describe, and stuffed animals that are truly "like new." Of course those should be reused, if at all possible. Better to have them in landfills? |
| I volunteered at a Wider Circle and there were a gazillion stuffed animals donated. We had to steam clean them before putting them on the donation shelf. I guess it's good that OP found a place for her 100 stuffed animals, but I'm surprised they took them if they were gathering dust for 5 years. |
Yes, PLEASE! I work with homeless kids and you should see the utter garbage people donate. Just the other day a friend was telling me about giving her kids’ clothes away. She gives “the good stuff” to her friends/family and anything”stained or gross” she donates! |
This made me snort laugh. Twice. |
We really need to get away from thinking new="the only acceptable way". "Excellent Used Condition" is just as good. Let's use what we already have instead of having factories crank out millions of new stuffed animals because heaven forbid an abused child would have to play with a stuffed animal in excellent used condition. |
| Did you ever see the House episode where a newborn died after someone put a stuffed bear that had come into contact with a diseased person in their crib? I’ve looked at stuffed animals as vectors of disease ever since. It’s not like a used crib or high chair where you can really clean it. |
Completely agree. Obviously the used stuffed animals should be inspected, but as a PP pointed out, many have been played with for 5 minutes. No bedbugs or lice, no drool or HFM. But these are the same posters horrified at shopping at consignment sales/stores, but think their Toyota Prius is their gift to the environmental movement. |
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Nobody can look at a stuffed animal and see what’s inside.
QUIT PAWNING YOUR USED STUFFED ANIMALS OFF ONTO POOR/ABUSED/IN NEED KIDS. If used stuffed animals are so damn wonderful, take your kid thrifting for them in consignments or thrift shops. Somehow those that insist donations of used stuffed animals are ok would never take give their kid a used one. In a recent study performed by Dettol, a UK company that manufactures antibacterial cleaning products, microbiologists swab-tested children's used teddy bears—and the results are absolutely shocking. A frightening 80% of the toys were contaminated with staphylococcus spp, a pathogen that can actually cause food poisoning when ingested. And even scarier —as many as 25% of the stuffed animals contained coliforms, suggesting the possible presence of harmful organisms that can cause dangerous diseases. Another test in the same study suggested that 1 in 4 teddy bears even contain traces of fecal matter. |