When I was a kid, going to the mall for our family’s annual Christmas shopping trip was an event. We looked forward to it every year. But the joy of those outings came to an end when one year, a horse who was hauling shoppers around the icy parking lot in a carriage stumbled and collapsed. Heaving and wide-eyed, the horse was in obvious distress. But despite the outcry of passersby, including me, the driver whipped her back to her feet. I left, sobbing, and wrote my first letter to the editor of the local newspaper, condemning this abuse.

How are these cruel holiday promotions still happening a half-century later?

Busy parking lots and city streets are no place for horses, yet some malls and community associations still offer holiday horse-drawn carriage rides. Caught up in the chaos, the operators of these rides often allow horses few breaks to rest or catch their breath. The horses can end up overworked, exhausted, hungry and thirsty.

During an annual holiday festival in Missouri, one horse was harnessed to a carriage so overloaded that he was twice unable to pull the rig up a hill. Local animal control agencies are also overburdened and don’t have the resources to closely monitor these kinds of displays and enforce compliance with anti-cruelty laws.

Horses are extremely sensitive to loud noises and unexpected sounds — like the blaring of a horn or amplified Christmas music. Horses and humans have been seriously hurt — some fatally — when horses have become startled and run amok or when impatient drivers have plowed right into them.

Two horses pulling a carriage during a neighborhood Christmas light display in Minnesota got scared and took off running for a mile with 15 passengers aboard, most of whom were children. The carriage eventually crashed, and the driver later died of his injuries.

Reindeer don’t belong in shopping malls, either, but some stores still haul in these animals for cheesy photo ops. Unlike Dasher and Dancer, reindeer are not domesticated and easily become stressed when dragged around and put on public display. Reindeer don’t enjoy being petted or harnessed or forced to “pull” sleighs. These large, strong animals tend to be skittish and unpredictable—and nothing ruins a shopping trip faster than a runaway, terrified animal with sharp antlers.

And isn’t forcing animals to participate in crèches and holiday shows the antithesis of the spirit of the season? Over the years, camels, sheep and donkeys used as props in Nativity scenes and other holiday displays have been beaten, mauled, attacked by dogs and killed by cruel people.

Others, frightened and confused, have broken away from the displays, only to be hit and killed by cars. North Carolina law enforcement officers spent 16 hours chasing down two calves who escaped a live Nativity event in 2022. A year earlier, a Kentucky medical center canceled its live-animal Nativity scene after a man was filmed violently punching a camel.

Crèches using animals aren’t even an accurate representation. Pope Benedict’s biography of Jesus Christ points out that, contrary to popular belief, there were no oxen, camels, donkeys or animals of any kind in the manger.

Times and sensibilities change. We know animals have wants and needs — and rights. We can easily extend goodwill to all by shunning any display in which animals are forced to perform or “entertain.” At the holidays and always, let’s leave animals in peace.

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Jennifer O’Connor is a senior writer with the PETA Foundation, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.

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