Russian officials are mandating Siberian farmers slaughter one in seven reindeer to prevent over-grazing and disease epidemics.
“Every herder should decide the fate of their own reindeer,” an angry reindeer farmer protested to the Associated Press. The Russian government normally requires approximately 70,000 reindeer be killed to restrict the market, but increased that number to 100,000 in the wake of an unprecedented spike in Siberian herds.
Russian government scientists say the killing is necessary to preserve the reindeer population from going extinct.
“It is essential to urgently reduce reindeer numbers,” Russian Academy of Sciences official Lyudmilla Morozova told the Associated Press. “The reindeer have eaten all the stores (of food) they shouldn’t have eaten, and we are on the edge of a cliff.”
Morozova noted that the reindeer population has grown by 50 percent in the last twenty years, which threatens to wipe out the reindeer’s main food source. The majority of Siberian reindeer sustain themselves off reindeer moss, which grows slowly.
Local opponents of the killing plan say the reduction in the reindeer population isn’t related to over-grazing, but to Russian oil and gas exploration. The Yamal Peninsula region, which is home to the majority of the reindeer population, has one of the largest natural gas fields in the world and is being aggressively targeted by the government.
“Our president should know we are also humans, and it is not just the gas industry that can work here,” a herder exclaimed.
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