We’re moving full steam ahead into the Holiday season!
With Halloween firmly behind us, spooky decorations are being packed up and put away for next year, and people are already starting to pull out Christmas decor just in time to light up these 4 PM sunsets!
But what can we do with all those jack-o’-lanterns we carved up?
Forget your green bin. We’ve got the perfect place to bring all your leftover pumpkins.
While they might look a bit old and wrinkly to you, to the animals at Cochranes Ecological Institute, they are incredibly tasty (and healthy) snacks.
The Institute houses many incredible creatures, from adorable baby moose and deer to bison, and all of these animals love to eat pumpkins!
The winter can be a challenging time to keep every animal at the Institute fed, and donating your old jack-o’-lanterns makes a massive difference in ensuring the animals have enough food for the winter.
As the organization succinctly put it on their Facebook page – “No one likes seeing their works of art go into the compost, so why not bring them to us instead?”
They’re accepting donations of unpainted and wax-free pumpkins at their Happy Tails Pet Retreat Cochrane Kennel every day from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM – no appointment needed.
The Cochrane Ecological Institute is a local non-profit that has worked to rehabilitate and release orphaned or injured wildlife since 1971.
On 160 acres of pristine rolling prairie grasslands and forest habitat, the institute provides the rescue, care, and rearing necessary to return their wildlife patients to the Alberta wilds where they belong.
As Paul Oxton, the founder of the Wild Heart Wildlife Federation, of which the institute is a member, said, “A simple act of kindness and compassion towards a single animal may not mean anything to all creatures, but will mean everything to one.”
And just one pumpkin will make a difference to whichever animal gets to munch on it!
To get familiar with the animals your pumpkins will feed, you can check out who the institute cares for on their Facebook page and see some of their successful releases here!
Your happy holiday pumpkin can spread even more happiness.
