Hi Philip,
Love your Krieghoff you presented in the other thread!
Pretty sweet DR.
The legal spokesperson of the national Sami association came out a couple of days and stated that hunting reindeer in Sweden is not legal. Svinejakt provided the link to the interview previously in the thread.
http://www.nsd.se/nyheter/lulea/ssr-om-mutskandalen-ren-ar-inte-jaktbart-vilt-nm4792543.aspx
She explained that reindeer is categorized as livestock and that the legal method of killing such as an animal is by using a captive bolt pistol. “Distance kills” (like hunting) are only allowed if the animal is unhealthy or injured. She also says that it is not possible, according to existing laws and regulations, to issue a permit for “distance kills”. She finishes off by stating that these animals are not huntable game and that you have to go to Norway to find such. These are pretty strong comments considering the fact that she is their legal adviser and represents them. You would probably expect her to defend the organization’s members, not the other way around.
As previously explained, these are domesticated animals and they have lost some if not all of their natural ability to defend themselves, which make them an easy prey for predators. They are herded in pretty much the same way as sheep and some of them wear cattle bells for easy localization (I think they have started to use GPS bracelets, but I am not sure how common this is). These herds are a pain in the b**t when you are hunting these areas because the animals are not particularly shy. After some research on the net I found that the Hunting Consortium has intermediated these (according to the Sami spokesperson) illegal hunts for quite a while, probably at least 9 years. One of their clients wrote a hunting report saying: “I managed to get an outstanding bull when it fortuitously crossed the road in front of us”. Okay…
In the case of the Hungarian politician, the hunt seems to have been sold through an Hungarian agent. The story came to broader attention because one of the Samis recognized the ear tag on the reindeer as his. It is quite common that these herds mix and Samis usually separate the animals once a year when butchering.
I am sure people bought these hunts in good faith and it is sad to see that they have been misinformed and most likely tricked. It is without doubt difficult to do a due diligence on a hunt far away from home. Maybe it is a comparable with some lions mentioned on this forum which were marketed as wild and free roaming? At least these reindeer were free roaming.