YOUR REINDEER'S NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS; Campaigners slam festive 'exploitation'.Byline: Alistair MunroTHE owner of the UK's only reindeer herd has been slammed over their "exploitation"for Christmas shows. Animal Aid say the creatures are put at risk by being taken to grottoes and parades - including one at London's upmarket up·mar·ket adj. Appealing to or designed for high-income consumers; upscale: "He turned up in well-cut clothes . . . and upmarket felt hats" New Yorker. Harrods store. Spokesman Ashley Owen said: "Uprooting reindeer from their natural habitat and keeping them in captivity in this way causes significant health and welfare problems." But Tilly Smith Tilly Smith is a British girl who, at age 10, was credited with saving nearly a hundred foreign tourists at Maikhao Beach (Thailand) by raising the alarm minutes before the arrival of the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. , who runs the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre at Glenmore, insisted there is nothing wrong in using the animals for celebrations, as long as they are looked after. She said: "The issue is how they are kept. They should not be in permanent captivity, that's why there have been these welfare problems in England." Her comments came after an investigation revealed a sharp rise in UK reindeer deaths. The Veterinary Laboratories Agency The Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) is an executive agency of the UK government department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs(Defra). It carries out animal disease surveillance, diagnostic services and veterinary scientific research for government and linked it to bad diet, poor welfare and the stress of being uprooted from their natural Arctic habitat. CAPTION(S): OWNER: Tilly Smith with one of her reindeer |
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