Animal Aid Launches Children’s Book – Rollo’s Long Way Home!

This book is the latest initiative in our annual campaign to encourage event organisers to move towards animal-free celebrations. Each year, reindeer are transported around the country to be used as props in festive events, despite the huge negative impact this has upon their welfare. A busy shopping centre, high street or a garden centre is no place for these sensitive animals who have evolved to live in the cold, icy wilds of the tundra. Perhaps even more tragically, once reindeer have been subjected to the stress of festive markets, parades or the switching on of Christmas-lights, over the ‘festive periods’ they will spend most of the rest of the year in captivity, to which they are ill-suited, forgotten by many people.

Reindeer are gentle, sensitive animals whose needs simply cannot be met in captivity. Yet, to satisfy public demand for a ‘magical moment’ each Christmas, reindeer are having to suffer behind closed doors 365 days a year.

We hope that the story of Rollo can encourage children (and adults) to think differently about animals, and question whether we should be using animals for our own amusement, rather than letting them live out their natural lives in the wild.

As an extra festive bonus, for every copy of the book that is bought, an anonymous donor will donate another copy to a primary school or community group! This helps spread the message of compassion towards all our fellow animals far and wide.