Schools and churches urged to stop using “sensitive” donkeys in nativity plays | UK | News
An animal rights charity is urging nativity productions not to use live donkeys to prevent them becoming depressed. The Donkey Sanctuary is advising schools and churches to use models or costumes after seeing “an alarming number of incidents where animal welfare is not deemed adequate”. The Devon-based charity warned that the use of live animals could be dangerous, but animals continue to appear in productions despite intervention from welfare activists.
“Do we really need to take two donkeys from the field and take them to a noisy, dark and difficult place?” Faith Burden, deputy chief executive of The Donkey Sanctuary, told The Telegraph: Donkeys in particular “do not show signs of stress, pain or distress” because they are prey animals, meaning their natural instinct is to hide these emotions.
“Unfortunately, these are really sensitive animals. Your average donkey, spent 364 days a year in the field and then released into the bright lights of the nativity play, is probably not having a very happy time.”
Ms Burden added that donkeys should always be with another donkey because they form a “pair bond”, which means they “don’t do very well on their own”.
The charity boss gave the example of a donkey left alone for long periods of time; This situation caused the donkey to become anxious and pose a danger to people.
Ben Hart, senior leader in behavior and human behavior change at The Donkey Sanctuary, added: “Every year, a donkey comes to the local church service and I can see how scared that donkey is. It becomes really difficult to enjoy the service when you see a donkey in distress.”
Many schools in the UK have been using live animals in nativity plays for years, including Holme Grange School in Wokingham.
Headteacher Clare Robinson said in 2024: “It’s about us wanting to give students the opportunity to live the experience and go through the different stages of the story.
“[They can] “Maybe you can gain some perspective from people who were there at that time, all those years ago.”
The donkeys used were locally sourced, the camels came from Warwick and the goats live on a farm on the school grounds.
