Hamleys responded to the fears of concerned customers by cancelling their plans to have reindeer and penguins in store for Christmas events. Was it too late?
This morning, I read that over 2 million tweets were sent on Twitter referencing #sHamleys last week. That is an astronomical amount of support for an issue, "What was that issue?" I hear you all cry. As many of you will be aware, Hamleys toy store had planned to hold Christmas events in store, where reindeer and penguin would be in store for the children to "interact" with. The #sHamleys Twitter campaign was the standout act of the drive to cancel these events, masterminded by James Barisic and Darren Hector amongst others.
The issue was picked up by social media and the mainstream media, leading to an outpouring of outrage by animal welfare supporters. It is encouraging that so many people recognised that a crowded, noisy and hot toy shop is not the correct environment for animals. This would have resulted in wholly unncessary suffering and undue stress for the animals, no doubt bewildered by their surroundings.
I have seen many comments by people suggesting that the animals will be used to being taken to events such as those planned at Hamleys. However, to counter these suggestions I would like to point out that even if this is the case (it is highly unlikely they are accustomed to being exploited), it doesn't make it right to use animals for our entertainment.
I am heartened that Hamleys chose to cancel these events, but still unsure as to why these events were ever deemed appropriate. They would surely have done great damage to many young people's perceptions of how to treat animals. At OneKind, we aim to build that connection between people and animals at an early age through education. Everybody makes mistakes and hopefully Hamleys have now realised there is no place for animal exploitation in entertainment.
The #sHamleys campaign highlighted the fact that people power is alive and well. When we stand together, we can truly create OneKind world. This is a world where we recognise the connection between people and animals. We realise that we're not that different after all.