REINDEER and penguin parades in Darlington have been slammed as “unethical and abusive” by animal rights campaigners.

A herd of Cairngorm reindeers are set to pull Santa’s sleigh along Tubwell Row this Sunday (November 29) to kick off Christmas at the Cornmill.

But the annual event has been met with strong opposition from PETA and campaigners who object to the parades which allows children to get up close to the animals.

Fiona Munro, an ex-Royal Mail employee from Darlington, said: “As a tax payer, I’m absolutely disgusted and I can’t believe the council are letting these parades happen.

“We should be teaching our kids compassion – it’s not normal to see a penguin or a reindeer in the town centre and they aren’t there to be abused or used for entertainment.

“The ideal would be for these events to be cancelled in order to protect the animals. A shopping centre with bright lights, loud noises and children running around is not their natural habitat."

But the Cornmill Shopping Centre responded to criticism and said it would never support an event that causes animals distress.

Centre manager at the Cornmill, Susan Young, said: “We have worked with Cairngorm Reindeer Herd for over 20 years and we are assured that their practices are completely ethical and involve no distress to the animals concerned.

“The herd we use are Britain’s only free range herd and they are tame and friendly animals that are used to human contact all year round.

“During the event the reindeers do a short walk outdoors through the town where members of the public can enjoy seeing them from a distance as part of the parade which has been part of Darlington’s festivities for many years.”

But animal rights group PETA strongly opposes any use of live animals for entertainment, branding it “cruel and dangerous”.

PETA spokeswoman, Kirsty Henderson, said: “A busy commercial centre filled with noisy shoppers, bright lights, and excited children, is an entirely unsuitable environment for these animals.

“The whole phenomenon of taking these animals out on the road, putting them in pens and treating them as if they were just Christmas decorations is unacceptable, and we should not be encouraging such an unethical and abusive trend.”

Penguin Encounter – the company bringing endangered Humboldt penguins to the Market Square in mid-December – had a similar event cancelled in Birmingham this week following outrage from campaigners.

However there are no plans to scrap the penguin parade, which is operated by Distinct Darlington.

The reindeers can be seen on Sunday from 11am on Tubwell Row.