DEFRA ban reindeer from GOSH Christmas event in Bond Street
Howard Lake | 22 November 2007 | News
Due to Bluetongue restrictions the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have banned reindeer from travelling to Bond Street in London for the annual Bond Noël Christmas extravaganza in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.
London falls within one of the DEFRA surveillance areas for Bluetongue and no animals from a restricted area are allowed to travel into the surveillance area.
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Model and author Sophie Dahl will be ‘flicking the switch’ on the Bond Street Christmas lights, but the popular live reindeer will not be on the street this year.
Tonight’s event features carol singers, entertainers and musicians providing the entertainment. Bond Street itself is “transformed into a winter wonderland” with artificial snow falling along the entire length of the street. Rickshaw sleighs whisk shoppers to and from the street’s designer stores.
In the face of the reindeer ban, local primary Abercorn School has volunteered its choir of 20 boys and girls to entertain the crowds, wearing their reindeer antlers.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.