9th November 2018

Last week Freedom for Animals discovered that the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds was due to exhibit live reindeer at their Christmas Festival on November 10th, this coming weekend. Following an email to the organisers and shopping centre owners, Landsec, we gathered together local campaigners to distribute our Rudolph’s Wish leaflets (order here) at the event.

This morning Landsec contacted us to inform us that they had decided to cancel the event and that they would like to meet with us to discuss the issue further. We are grateful to Landsec for doing the right thing and reaching out to us for dialogue.

Animal friendly alternatives

The Christmas Festival will still go ahead at White Rose from 11am – 5pm and is set to be a lovely event including fun and games such as hook-a-pud and carol-oke, plus live dancing and Disney decorations - certainly the kind of entertainment that proves it is not necessary to exhibit live animals in order to have fun and feel festive at Christmas!

Katie Chabriere, Festive Events Campaigner at Freedom for Animals said

“Reindeer are adapted to living in the Arctic tundra and are semi-wild, flight animals which are certainly not suited to being surrounded by large numbers of people or to endure the transportation to these kinds of events. Recent press coverage has indicated poor welfare standards at many reindeer centres throughout the country. We are grateful to White Rose for reacting to our campaign and responding to feedback from customers and are especially grateful to campaigners in Leeds who helped sway this decision .”

Take Action!

• Thank White Rose for their decision and urge them to keep future events reindeer free on: [email protected]
• Report use of live animals at Christmas events HERE