VIDEO: Alec Baldwin Slams Radio City’s Live-Animal Nativity Scenes in New TV Spot

For Immediate Release:
November 3, 2025

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

New York –

Ahead of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Alec Baldwin is calling out the production’s spectacularly cruel use of camels, sheep, and donkeys as living set pieces for its Nativity scenes in a new PETA video spot that will run on CTV during the show’s opening week. In the video, Baldwin points out that it’s highly stressful and confusing for animals to be hauled around, confined backstage like props, and subjected to the disorienting lights and sounds of a stage production.

“Animals are not actors or props,” Baldwin says. “It’s time for a change. This year, please join me in calling for a cruelty-free Christmas show by visiting PETA.org/RadioCity.”

And to make sure Radio City gets the message, a pair of unmissable, stilt-walking PETA supporters dressed as sad Rockette “toy soldiers” will converge outside Christmas Spectacular’s opening night on November 6 to push the show to modernize and leave animals in peace. The action kicks off a new PETA effort calling on Chase, Lexus, and Verizon not to sponsor the exploitative show until it ends the use of live animals.

Where: Outside Radio City Music Hall, 1260 6th Ave., New York

When: Thursday, November 6, at 1:30 p.m.

*A camel tied up backstage at Radio City Music Hall. Credit: PETA*

“A full-blown stage production is stressful and chaotic even for willing human performers who dreamed of being there, let alone a terrified animal being forced onto set like an inanimate prop,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the Christmas Spectacular to make the holidays merry and bright for all by leaving the animals out of their otherwise dazzling production.”

Camels are gentle animals who express their feelings with groans, moans, and roars; donkeys can recognize the faces of animals they haven’t seen for years; and sheep’s heart rates increase when they can’t find their family or are approached by strangers.

PETA’s video spot will air on CTV starting November 6.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.