25th October 2024

Christmas is a time for reflection, spending time with family at home, and being kind to others. Events like Lancaster Business Improvement District’s (BID) Reindeer Day take reindeer away from their home in the Cairngorms National Park, and subject these gentle creatures to weeks of travel, and exposure to disease, loud shopping centres and upheaval. This doesn’t sound like Christmas to me.

I feel deeply concerned that such an exploitative event is happening and has been permitted to carry on for so long. I find the use of animals in such a disturbing way, whilst pretending to be normal, very deceitful. Reindeer Day is targeted at families, and it is incredibly harmful to how children perceive animals.

I am a local Lancaster resident, mother of two young children, activist and artist. I volunteer for Animal Aid as a school speaker delivering presentations on animal advocacy, promoting the benefits of a vegan lifestyle and alternatives to animal experimentation.

I've decided to take action for the reindeer by starting a campaign to stop this event and to educate people on the detrimental impact of these events for the reindeer with support from numerous animal campaign organisations including Freedom for Animals, Animal Aid and local group, Animal Think Tank. There are many alternatives to using reindeer to capture the magic of the festive season that do not involve exploitation of animals. 

The Reindeer Day events have been on Lancaster BID’s yearly calendar for a long time, usually held on the first weekend of December. The event is promoted via social media with often hundreds of comments from local residents stating the issues of exploitation, and urgent calls to stop the event. These comments are mostly ignored by Lancaster BID or glossed over with claims about the welfare of the reindeer and the ‘educational’ element of the event. I have contacted BID on many occasions by email, to express my concerns and provided scientific evidence gathered from numerous animal activist organisations, that transporting and displaying reindeer in shopping centres is not beneficial for their health and wellbeing. And yet, disappointingly, they are holding the same event again this year.

BID's use of reindeer is not educational and is a poor way for children to engage with these majestic animals. Instead of taking my children to zoos, aquariums, or events like Reindeer Day I choose animal sanctuaries where the animals are properly looked after and have agency of where they roam and how they interact with humans. It would be great if the Cairngorms National Park became a true sanctuary for reindeer, instead of being home to an organisation that forces them to travel across the country to entertain shoppers.

I teach my children that animals have their own choices and we cannot force them to interact or perform for us. My children have learnt from experiences at animal sanctuaries and from picture books about treating animals as equals, and most importantly bringing my children up as vegans teaches them that animals deserve respect and compassion, and that they are not ours to exploit.

Children deserve a better connection with animals, that does not put sentient beings in such a negligent and stressful situation as Reindeer Day.

Last year I attended Reindeer Day to hand out leaflets on the poor conditions reindeer are subjected to. I was not met with a smile from Lancaster BID, who disagreed that this event was exploitative. According to one shopper I was also “ruining the children’s Christmas”. I was told to speak to one of the people who look after the animals at the event from the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd. Unfortunately this staff member couldn't see for themselves how unnatural and loud the event must have been for them. I was told they travel almost 300 miles to this event alone -  An incredibly long way from their usual home! I took pictures of the poor conditions the reindeer were placed in; a cold shopping centre floor with plastic bags beside them, and shoppers pointing and making a lot of noise. You can see for yourself that this isn’t ideal conditions for any animal. Better education is needed urgently about what reindeer actually need to thrive, and information about animal agency is necessary to better guide the public about the detrimental effects of these events.

Although I wasn't met positively this spurred me on to make a change for the reindeer for 2024. The day after the 2023 Reindeer Day I spoke to several businesses about it, who all seemed to have no knowledge of it and expressed disbelief that such an outdated event was still running in Lancaster! My aim, along with support from animal advocacy group Lancaster Animal Protection, is to collect as many local businesses’ support signatures to show BID and St Nicholas Arcade that Lancaster does not stand for animal cruelty. So far Lancaster café  and wholefood shop, Pure Vegan, and one of Lancaster’s oldest businesses, Single Step, fully support the campaign to stop the Reindeer Day.

How can we take action as a community? A petition is now live and ready to sign and share! Follow the campaign and our campaign group, Lancaster Animal Protection, for more information about how to take further action. If you are a local business, please contact us to show your support for the campaign.

There are many alternative options to using reindeer - such as a puppet show, adopt a reindeer, animations, and educational videos. Festive family events are important and should encompass values of empathy, connection, and compassion. As a mother and animal activist I want my children to see and engage with animals in their natural environments where they have their own agency and space to roam. It is important to me that my children respect animals and do not see them as a cheap thrill or commodity. Transporting reindeer hundreds of miles from their home to be displayed in shopping centres as entertainment does not foster empathetic or compassionate values.     

Animals are exploited for entertainment purposes regularly. It is my hope that this campaign will inform people of the negative impact of using reindeer in festive events and stop further events where animals are unjustly used in Lancaster and beyond!