The Cool Thing Is We’re Going To Be Using Live Animals . . . Hopefully They Won’t Be Total Animals

The war on Christmas claims another victim:

Yet another Nativity display has met its end, but this time it had nothing to do with political correctness.

The problem: A sheep and a goat in one pen.

Since Dec. 1, the Greenside Up garden center at 5050 Hylan Blvd. in Annadale has featured a hay-filled pen full of llamas, goats, sheep, emus, ponies and more, which has acted as a mini-petting-zoo reminiscent of the time of the birth of Christ.

The animals are mostly passive, mildly poking at their wooden fence in hopes of fresh corn.

That changed on Sunday, when, as best as workers can tell, the young billy goat rammed the 8-year-old sheep.

Though the workers say horseplay occasionally happens in the pen, owner Dennis Hansen of Greenside Up said the sheep also took a few hard knocks from the llama.

. . .

Workers separated the sheep from the rest of the animals, though her friend, an emu, stayed with her and yesterday nuzzled her and fussed over her.

Yesterday morning, a customer noticed that the sheep was lying on its side, and alerted Hansen, as well as the city Center for Animal Care and Control and the ASPCA.

When they arrived, the sheep was on her side taking shallow breaths, apparently suffering internal bleeding.

And with that, the nativity scene was promptly shut down.