Have a look at window #9 in our online Advent calendar. And while you are at it, have a look at this essay by Andrew Linzey in the Times of London, which begins by asking how the ox and donkey came to end up in the traditional Western nativity scene, and ends by arguing that: “the ‘Christian’ view of animals is altogether more ambiguous than many suppose. Despite the almost universal view that Christianity teaches that animals are here for our use, the Bible never explicitly endorses that idea — its originator was (most probably) Aristotle.”