Council sent hundreds of emails calling for ban on deer use

Hundreds of emails have been sent calling for a ban of deer and other live animals in Brisbane Christmas events this year but council has confirmed the practice will continue.

BRISBANE City Council will continue to use live deer and other animals at Christmas events this year despite a campaign by animal rights organisation PETA for the practice to be banned.

Hundreds of emails have been sent by Brisbane residents calling for the ban but council’s Brisbane Marketing, which runs the Christmas events, confirmed the red deer would be used this year.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) spokeswoman Emily Rice said following last year’s decision by David Jones to stop using live deer, the organisation had asked council to do the same.

PETA Australia’s Emily Rice wants council to put an end to the use of animals in Christmas events. Picture: Supplied

Ms Rice said an email action alert set up by PETA had seen almost 500 emails sent in the last month and she urged people to continue to contact council.

She said Brisbane residents were asking council to stop using “reindeer” to “lure crowds” and then “confining the deer to a small patch of plastic grass as part of the Santa’s Stable display at Reddacliff Place”.

“Animals are living, feeling individuals, not props,” she said.

Full Digital Access $5 per month for the first 3 months (conditions apply)

Ms Rice wrote to council say the event with “hundreds of noisy shoppers, excited children, and bright lights is an entirely unsuitable environment for reindeer or any other animals”.

“University of Queensland lecturer Dr Gordon Dryden of the IUCN/SSC Deer Specialist Group has noted that temperatures of 20 degrees and above can cause reindeer heat stress.”

Ms Rice said now was the time “for Brisbane Marketing to not only be more compassionate, but also creative”.

“Brisbane City Council could employ consenting adults to dress up in costume, rather than forcing animals who do not have a choice, denying them of everything that’s natural and important to them,” Ms Rice said.

The Red Deer have been part of the Christmas festivities at Reddacliff Place but some hope it won’t be happening this year. Picture: AAP/Josh Woning

“There are absolutely no benefits to using a live animal as a Christmas decoration in fact, feedback from many Brisbanites has been that seeing animals bored and used as props detracts from the spirit of the season for them and their kids.”

A Brisbane Marketing spokesperson said the 2019 Brisbane Christmas program would see the return of the “much-loved Santa’s Stable, a special chance for families to take selfies with Santa’s deer”.

“Santa’s Stable will take place for an hour from 5.30pm each evening from 13-22 December at Reddacliff Place and feature two Australian red deer,” the spokesperson said.

“Families love seeing Santa’s deer and this year there will be more to see and do with the opportunity to get happy snaps as one of the highlights of the Christmas program.”

The spokesperson said the red deer were supplied by a “reputable family business and will be placed in a comfortable enclosure”.

“The popular Christmas Parade is refreshed every year and the 2019 parade will not include animals,” the spokesperson said.

A posts on the Brisbane City Council Facebook page last year about the use of deer as reindeer in the Christmas events. Photo. Facebook.

RSPCA Queensland spokesman Michael Beatty said the association “would prefer animals were not used for entertainment such as this because of the risk of injury and stress”.

“We also believe that using animals in this way sends incorrect messages to children about our right to use animals in whatever way we want,” he said.

“However, we have never found any evidence in the past of animal misuse or unhealthy and stressed animals.”

Mr Beatty said inspectors had attended the council’s Christmas events.

MORE QUEST NEWS

Mental health awards highlight life changing work

Once homeless now heading up a million dollar company

Chermside woman connecting young cancer sufferers

Gabba Ward Councillor Jonathan Sri said even if “water and shade and regular breaks” were provided for the deer, “the middle of a noisy Australian city on a hot summer’s day doesn’t seem like a very comfortable environment for deer that are adapted to European grasslands”.

“Christmas should be about friends and family coming together, not about mindless consumerism or disrespecting and subjugating other living creatures.”

The PETA action alert remains open.