Nonhuman animals are forced into many roles and functions during humans’ holidays, festivals and various celebrations. Christmas is no different.

We’ll start with humans’ supposedly best friend.
Puppy dogs are a very popular Christmas gift, only that unfortunately, when the holiday ends and the initial enthusiasm from the adorable puppy declines and the awareness of the responsibility of taking care of someone inclines, many puppies end up on the street or in animal shelters soon after Christmas. This dreadful fact is so common that many animal shelters halt adoptions during Christmas to somewhat decrease dogs abandonment after the holiday.
In addition, since many dogs given as a Christmas gift are not adopted but are purchased in a “pet” store, this “gift” perpetuates the commodification of sentient beings, and since the majority of these puppies come from puppy mills it also perpetuates these horrible places.

Far from the status of dogs but still supposedly a beloved animal by humans, and a positive symbol of the holiday, are reindeers. But as usual, the fact that certain nonhuman animals are viewed as a symbol in human culture doesn’t protect them from exploitation but makes them victims of it. In the case of reindeers, being a symbol of Christmas, they are forced to entrain humans during the holiday season as props for Christmas events and displays, mostly in shopping centers, schools, town squares, holiday parades and etc.
The reindeers are forced to endure long journeys from one event to another while confined to tiny pens. And the events themselves are even worse as the reindeers, who are naturally sensitive animals living in huge herds, are exposed to highly stressful and unnatural situations such as being alone, or with only a few other reindeers, in a very noisy place, with bright artificial light, and constant flow of people, many of whom are touching them.

In many countries the exploitation of reindeers goes beyond entrainment props during the holiday season. In Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Greenland, Alaska, Mongolia, China and Canada, farming reindeers for their milk, flesh and skin is quite popular. Reindeer flesh is consumed regularly, as well as on Christmas Eve. Being a holiday symbol doesn’t stop humans from torturing and devouring reindeers on the very holiday they supposedly symbolize.

And last, and definitely least in human hierarchy of other species, are the animals humans are using merely to feed themselves with. Turkeys are considered as the main course of the previous holiday in the US which is Thanksgiving, but in fact tens of millions of turkeys are tortured and slaughtered particularly for Christmas as well.

And many other nonhuman animals that humans regularly view as raw material for their own culinary pleasure, are also not spared during Christmas, as ‘Pigs in Blankets‘ and ‘Roasted Beef‘ are also very popular domination symbols during the holiday.

So no matter if nonhuman animals are treated as a holiday gift, a holiday entertainment prop, or a holiday course as a corpse, nonhuman animals are objects for humans’ pleasure. All year round, and especially during holidays. There is no super trite Christmas film that can convince us otherwise than that when it comes to nonhuman animals it is in fact a horrible life. And the only way to truly make it wonderful is if humans are never born.