No More Live Reindeer at Local Hardware Store After PETA Appeal

For Immediate Release:
November 29, 2021

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

After hearing from PETA that holiday displays are anything but merry for sensitive reindeer—who are trucked from one event to the next, roughly handled, and restrained and who become confused and worried by strange surroundings and crowds—Camp Abbot Trading Co. took the compassionate step of pledging not to host events with reindeer or any other live animals again.

“The holiday season just got brighter for wildlife now that Camp Abbot Trading has given live-animal displays the old heave ho-ho-ho,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Debbie Metzler. “PETA urges any other stores tempted to exhibit reindeer this winter to follow Camp Abbot’s lead and celebrate with colorful animal-free decor.”

Reindeer are herd animals who travel up to 1,000 miles during their annual migration through the tundra. When they’re strapped to sleighs, forced into public interactions, or otherwise used in holiday displays, they’re denied the opportunity to satisfy their instincts to travel, forage, and socialize with others in their herd and their welfare is often compromised. Last year, a young reindeer at a Christmas tree farm died after a visitor fed him bread and sweets.

Wild animals also pose a risk to public health and safety: Reindeer can transmit numerous diseases—such as rabies, salmonellosis, sarcoptic mange, and ringworm—to humans. And in 2017, an intern at an Illinois reindeer supplier sustained serious injuries that required surgery when a bull reindeer pushed her against a fence and punctured her with his antlers.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.