PETA ‘Elves’ Decry Cruel, Inhumane Treatment Of Animals In Living Nativities Across US, Particularly At Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular

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Baldwin-Backed, PETA ‘Elves’ Set Out to Decry Radio City’s Live-Animal Nativity Scenes

The following questions were posed about this issue:

We’d also like to know if you know how many cities/states/counties across the country still use these types of scenes with animals? Or how many animals appx are subjected to this? Are these generally animals that are destined for slaughter as well?

A- Untold numbers of animals are exploited for entertainment across the country every year, including in live Nativity displays, which are anything but merry for the animals who are subjected to a constant barrage of strange noises, activity, and crowds of people. Christmas is a time for compassion and kindness and should not be celebrated by forcing sensitive animals into public spectacles. PETA is asking everyone to make compassionate choices year-round by avoiding events like this one that exploit animals, and for Radio City Music Hall to stop supporting animal abuse and drop the cruel animal acts now. 

 

 

 

Now, almost all Hollywood productions use innovative special effects and other technology to leave animals alone. Some of New York’s most successful productions, including Broadway’s The Lion King with its intricate puppetry, creatively work animals into their shows without forcing them to take the stage. Reinventing the Christmas Spectacular to be animal-free would bring it into the modern era and truly align it with the Christmas spirit.

Our previous article about this event last year said

Racheli’s answer was particularly important, in order to understand the crux of their argument. She said, essentially, that it is not terribly important that something exist that can replace the living animals in the show, when you consider the way that these animals tend to be treated. This is in line with PETA’s motto, which in part reads that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment…”

 

If animals are treated in abhorrent conditions, this needs to be changed regardless of the changes that would have to take place to the show. If there is to be nothing while they find a suitable replacement, the show will still go on, as most of the focus (especially in popular culture) is the human performers.

Below is the original release announcing the event: 

With signs declaring, “Radio City: End Animal Acts Now!,” PETA “elves” are set to descend on Radio City Music Hall on Thursday to make a colorful appeal for the Christmas Spectacular to stop using live camels, sheep, and donkeys as living props in its Nativity scenes. PETA’s action has the support of actor Alec Baldwin , who has urged the owner of Radio City Music Hall to stop subjecting animals to the stress and confusion of being hauled from city to city in cramped trucks, confined for months to its basement—and exposed to loud sounds and disorienting lights several times a day. Baldwin has called on the show to modernize by using animatronics, magical displays, LED lights, or special effects rather than needlessly subject animals to prolonged stress.

 

“Camels, sheep, and donkeys feel pain and fear as acutely as humans do, but the Christmas Spectacular denies them any comfort or joy when it drags them across the stage like inanimate props,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on the stage show to get off the ‘naughty list’ and create a truly spectacular production that leaves animals in peace.”

Camels are friendly animals who express their feelings with groans, moans, and roars; donkeys can recognize the faces of animals they haven’t seen for years; and sheep’s heart rates increase when they can’t find their family or are approached by strangers. Animals exploited in live Nativities face a constant barrage of activity and unwanted touches and are often tethered and made to stand on hard surfaces for hours. Their handlers commonly threaten and intimidate them—many use abusive tools to make them obey commands out of fear of physical punishment. These scenes are also unsafe for humans, since unpredictable, easily stressed 1,500-pound camels especially pose a danger to the public

Protest in New York on Jan. 2, 2025.Photographs by Brittainy Newman for PETA


Protest in New York on Jan. 2, 2025.Photographs by Brittainy Newman for PETA

Protest in New York on Jan. 2, 2025.Photographs by Brittainy Newman for PETA

Protest in New York on Jan. 2, 2025.Photographs by Brittainy Newman for PETA

Banner Image: Protest in New York on Jan. 2, 2025. Image Credit – Brittainy Newman for PETA 


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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in the world, and PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally. PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: in laboratories, in the food industry, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment business. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of rodents, birds, and other animals who are often considered “pests” as well as cruelty to domesticated animals. PETA works through public education, investigative newsgathering and reporting, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.

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