Our Story

About THE ZOO®

Connecting Kids and Wildlife

Very briefly, here’s a quick history. I hope to fill in many of the blanks through our blog.

The picture on the right is the original zoo I made for my daughter Trish in about 2003. It took us a while to develop it into the product it is today with many parents and kids around the world now enjoying tidy rooms, or maybe just less cluttered than before! We have always wanted The ZOO to be safe and durable too, and I think its success has substantiated these claims.

In 2014, I felt The ZOO should also serve a greater purpose, and that is to help create awareness about the plight of animals and their environment in the world our kids will inherit. So I set up a wildlife charity called Littlezookeepers Go Wild. To give it real impact, I chose to support The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation in the UK, and in particular, the Elephant Orphanage Project in Zambia. My daughter Trish, (now a little older!) visited the project at our own expense in Zambia in 2015.

It was on this visit that we fell in love with the Little Ndaba Toys and the stories of the ladies who make them. We are thrilled to be able to offer them to our customers in the US. The lives of these ladies are additionally challenged by trying to co-exist with the wild animals we are working to conserve. Again, I intend to make this story an on-going part or our blog.

In 2016 we made two big decisions. The first was to cease carving THE ZOO into the header and replace it with a quality nameplate that customers can chose to use or not to use. Carving was generating too much waste from cosmetic problems caused by revealing the inner plys of the plywood. Many customers also wanted to have a blank header to personalize.

The second decision, largely based on the fact that I’m now well passed retirement age, is our decision to outsource production to a Taiwanese company with a factory in mainland China. We have been using this company for several years to serve the UK Market and I have nothing but praise for their quality and service. Trish and I visited them in January 2017 and came away most impressed both with their sophisticated German equipment and with some new friends. Especially Jennifer, our Taiwanese contact who calls me Uncle John. And for those of you who don’t believe in Free Trade; their warehouse is stacked to the roof with materials imported from North America and New Zealand.

Uncle John

THE ZOO® is Designed and Developed in Michigan and is distributed in North America by the Hulton House Corporation, a Michigan Corporation owned by the Chisholm family.

THE ZOO® is a registered trademark of the Hulton House Corporation and is promoted under the name of Littlezookeepers.

Hulton House Corporation
214 Gladwin Avenue
Clawson, MI 48017

THE ZOO® is also available from independent distributors in the UK and Australia.

What Our Happy Clients Say

Thank you for such an awesome product!

Our daughter got the ZOO for her 6th birthday. We ALL love her ZOO and will probably be getting another one soon for her little sister!! Thanks so much for making a very functional and fun way to keep stuffed animals!!

This might be the most amazing product I have purchased in years. As soon as our tax refund arrives, I will be purchasing two more… we have a world of stuffed animals. Thanks!

This is the most ingenious idea for storing all of her stuffed animals. For years our daughters bedroom has been covered in these stuffed animals. The floor, the bed, the bureaus… Nets do not come close to holding even half of what she owns. Thank you so much for your very clever invention. I am so glad to have found it online. It is so worth the price.

The ZOO holds them all, and takes up very little room on the floor since it is a vertical holder. Such an unbelievable idea. Thank you. Thank you. We are thrilled with our purchase and even more happy that our daughters room can now REALLY be picked up and neat!!

The Zoo is the best stuffed animal storage unit I have EVER encountered. We got it and were able to unpack the boxes and boxes of stuffed animals that were in storage! Thank you!

The Zoo has saved my daughter and me from countless arguments about her formerly messy room. Now, she can tidy her room literally in seconds!

Received and put together The Zoo yesterday. What a fantastic product. Thank you!

Thank You very much for making such a great product. Our daughter had 5 years worth of stuffed animals and they all fit perfectly!!!!!

My daughter was so excited she could hardly wait. If fact, she wanted to assemble it herself, a 10-year old, and she did it!

The Zoo is by far the best purchase we have ever made for organizing our daughter’s room. I wish we would have known and bought this years ago. So happy with it!! Thanks!

I was a little nervous when I got everything out of the box… I am not technically inclined in the least! But it was SO easy and the instructions were great! After it was together I was thrilled and pretty sure I would be ordering another immediately because of the massive volume of stuffed animals my daughter has… They ALL fit?! How could it be? It is perfect! Thank you for thinking of such a great idea! We love our zoo! I am sharing this with everyone I know with kids!

Our daughter loves stuffed animals, and I hated constantly tripping over them until we found the ZOO. She loves it and so do I. She wants everyone to see her Zoo and all of her animals. It helps keep her room a lot more organized and she can see all of her animals and get to the one she wants. Thanks!