Send your ex’s name to the wolves for $5: A Valentine’s Day twist at local wildlife sanctuary

MIDDLEBURG, Pa. — Stop by T&D’s Cats of the World near Middleburg, and you’ll find all kinds of animals. For Valentine’s Day, the animal sanctuary is bringing back a popular fundraiser—tossing your ex to the wolves.

“An ex-girlfriend, boyfriend, boss, spouse, roommate, the sky’s the limit for an ex, so we’ll put their name to that for $5, and then we toss them to the wolves on Valentine’s Day,” said Jennifer Mattive, T&D’s Cats of the World co-owner. 

The sanctuary in Snyder County started the fundraiser during the pandemic, and it’s blown up since then.

“We had a radio station from Texas call about it; we had people from all over. We have 200 cookies that year, so this year we have between 40 and 50 again, so it’s usually around that,” said Mattive.

While you can toss your ex to real wolves, “Toss your ex to the wolves” isn’t taken literally. 

“It’s just a peanut butter dog treat cookie, and then she uses gingerbread cutouts, but someone’s missing an arm, one’s missing a head, one’s missing a leg, it’s just for fun, yeah, something for fun,” said Mattive. 

There are currently four wolves at the sanctuary, ready to chow down your ex’s name. 

“Hopefully, this will get them some more treats, and they’ll be hopefully not sick from your exes but hopefully a little more fuller,” said Mattive. 

All proceeds from the fundraiser go towards the volunteer-based sanctuary, helping with taking care of the animals and other expenses. 

“Between 200 to 300 mammals, and we also have some birds that we care for a variety of animals since it’s cats of the world, we do have tigers and lions, but we have the wolves, we have monkeys, foxes, so we have a little variety of animals,” said Mattive. 

The last day to purchase a $5 treat is February 12th. To purchase a treat, you can use PayPal to pay with a credit card by emailing [email protected]. Use the “message” space to specify what name to place on the treat.