I heard in another thread here that these trees are coated with a flame retardant so they don't catch fire so easily! Mine eat a few needles from the natural trees outside. As long as the tree is not treated, it will be fine.
I dont have time to look up the links but I seem to recall researching this last year and the answer was no (if I remember correctly) ... put it somewhere they cannot get to it.
I just watched the t.v. show myth busters and it shows that most trees are not harmfull to anything . they also tried to catch it on fire and tried many different thing to keep it "alive" . It takes ALOT of heat to burn that tree , so I would say go for it , animals usually eat what they want anyway !!!!