At NYC’s Madison Square Garden: PETA Becomes Shareholder To Press For Removal Of Living Animals From Christmas Spectacular, Replace With Animatronics Or Human Actors
PETA Buys Madison Square Garden Entertainment Stock in Bid to Get Animals Out of Christmas Spectacular
Editor’s note: We’ve previously covered PETA’s protest of the living nativity, which they bring public attention to every year. The practice of keeping live animals for this show causes a great deal of suffering for these sheep, lambs, and other creators forced to participate in the show. Photos from our previous coverage of PETA’S protests against the living nativity follows the article below.
New York — PETA has just purchased stock in Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. (MSGE)—the parent company of Radio City Music Hall—and plans to use its shareholder status to convince directors and shareholders to stop using live animals in the nativity scene in the Christmas Spectacular, which runs for months every winter.
The scene subjects camels, donkeys, and sheep to disorienting lights and loud music—and when they’re not on stage, the animals are confined backstage—some reportedly in the basement—for months until they’re shipped back to a facility that rents animals out for circus shows, which are notorious for beating animals and forcing them to perform tricks out of fear of punishment.
A camel tied up backstage at Radio City Music Hall. Credit: PETA
“A stage production in an unnatural environment, complete with lights and noise, is extremely stressful and confusing to camels and other animals who should never be treated like living props,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “Now that PETA is a stockholder, we will bring the issue straight to the boardroom and call on MSG Entertainment to leave animals out of the Christmas Spectacular.”
PETA is also calling on the show’s sponsors—including Chase, Lexus, and Verizon—to stop supporting the show until it ends the use of live animals. PETA points out that some of New York’s most successful productions—including Broadway’s The Lion King—rely solely on brilliant puppetry and creative tech to bring animal characters to life.
Puppet head protest 2025. Image Credit – PETA
Protest in New York on Jan. 2, 2025.(Photographs by Brittainy Newman for PETA
Banner Image: Radio City’s Cruelmas Spectacular banner. Image Credit – PETA
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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