With Toys “R” Us’s Geoffrey the giraffe facing possible extinction in the wake of the retailer’s closure, the San Antonio Zoo stepped up with a solution to save the bankrupt retailer’s mascot, the Houston Chronicle reported. The zoo last month launched an online campaign in hopes of “adopting” Geoffrey from Toys “R” Us Inc. to use as the face for giraffe conservation. Only 100,000 giraffes remain in the wild, the zoo said. The zoo started a GoFundMe page to raise $100,000 for the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and “to persuade the owners at Toys “R” Us to join the effort to save giraffes by donating the use of their most recognizable intellectual property.” Given it’s mired in bankruptcy, Toy “R” Us isn’t in a position right now to simply give away the rights to Geoffrey for nothing. Bankruptcy lawyers say the retailer has a duty to maximize the amount of money it can recover from selling assets so it can pay creditors. Those assets include its U.S. intellectual property, such as its name, its catchy, vintage TV jingle — “I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us kid” — the Babies “R” Us brand, and Geoffrey. “If there are no buyers for Geoffrey, then (Toys “R” Us) can ask the bankruptcy court for permission to donate those rights to a worthy cause, which could include the zoo,” said bankruptcy attorney John Penn, who is not involved in the case. But “they at least need to try to get some kind of value for it first.”
