Town of Farmington — Just in time for the holidays — though he insists that wasn’t the plan — Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary owner David Fechter has officially launched a long-awaited online gift store, featuring products inspired by the zoo’s most beloved animals.
“This has been a work in progress for probably five years,” Fechter said. “We got the website up and got things going, but when things are growing and you’ve got things happening, you can’t always get everything done. So, we got like 10 things started — and one by one, we try to get them going.”
The online shop idea was recently revived thanks to one of Shalom’s tech-savvy zookeepers. “He said, ‘Why don’t we get this thing going?’ And I said, well, if you want, I got everything in place. Let’s just do it,” Fechter said.
The store will offer a wide range of Shalom-inspired items — calendars, puzzles, shirts, jackets, hats, mugs, and framed wildlife photos, all celebrating the sanctuary’s famous residents.
“People want calendars and puzzles and shirts and jackets — not just in Washington County, but all over the world,” Fechter said. “People contact us constantly, so we said, let’s just get it going this year.”
Among the first products is the 2025 Shalom Wildlife calendar, featuring striking photographs taken by Fechter himself. “These are the images I take at the zoo,” he said. “These are our actual animals — the best of the best. I have an eye for which ones really stand out, and those are the ones we put in the calendar.”
Click HERE to shop the Shalom Gift Store
The calendar, priced at $19.95, showcases some of Shalom’s most recognizable faces — including Lewis and Clark, Ginger and her cubs, and the sanctuary’s golden tiger, Tiger King.
“It’s our golden tiger,” Fechter said. “According to the 400,000 people who follow Shalom on Facebook, he’s the most beautiful tiger in the world. He truly is. He’s just totally beautiful. He’s golden, and there are only 35 of those in the world — so he’s super rare and super beautiful.”
Questioned if the timing was meant to coincide with holiday shopping. “Everybody’s saying we timed it for Christmas, but we really didn’t,” Fechter said. “We just thought it was right.”
Looking ahead, Shalom hopes to expand the online store to include more art and community collaboration. “We have a lot of nature-minded artists,” Fechter said. “Maybe we can put that together and kind of make a community thing out of it.”
For Fechter, the response so far has been deeply touching. “People are very supportive of Shalom,” he said. “They want the shirts, they love the animals, and they love what we do. The community’s been unbelievable — just so heartwarming.”
The Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary gift store is now live, with more items to be added in the coming months — a perfect way for animal lovers near and far to bring a piece of Shalom home.
