More than a hundred reindeer were killed in a single four-day period by freight trains rolling through Norway, prompting an outcry for the national railway to do more to protect animals.

In all, 110 reindeer were killed when eight freight trains plowed into herds on the tracks last week, Norway’s national railway company said. In the most serious accident, 65 reindeer were killed on Saturday when they were hit by a freight train destined for the northern town of Bodo.

“It was a blood bath,” a reindeer herder, Torstein Appfjell, 59, said in a phone interview. “I have been a herder all my life, since boyhood, and I have never ever seen anything like the scene on Saturday night.”

Mr. Appfjell said he had shot about 15 reindeer that had no chance of survival, to put them out of their pain. Afterward, he said, he had to drink whiskey to calm his nerves.

“It hurts, because we know each and every one of our animals,” he said. “When you herd, you see things like this often and you put your feelings aside. But this particular scene will be burned into the retina of my eyes forever. Sixty-five animals in one crash — it’s a catastrophe.”

Full article here.

Oh god! This isn’t what you sign up for on a train through snowy hinterland. You expect to step out and see a winter wonderland, not bloodstained snow covered with the strewn limbs of helpless reindeer. Given these are freight trains so I’m not sure anybody is riding these for pleasure, but they for sure left this part out of Polar Express. I didn’t know this was a hazard! I didn’t know that we had a fleet of Norwegian train drivers slinging freight and massacring reindeer by the hundred. Fuck! What is happening here? It seems like from the article that this has been an issue for a while. So what, do these train guys just not feel like stopping? Psychopaths!

I mean not only is it sad for the doomed reindeer, but it seems like these herders are gonna need to talk to some one. Poor Torstein Appfjell is just swiggin' whiskey and giving' the hundred yard stare after executing seventy of his best friends. This is why I don’t pay attention to animals that aren’t my dog. I can deal with exactly one animal friend dying every seven years; anything more than that would break my mind, and I'd be right there with Torstein. If you’re a freight train driver in Norway, watch out because I guarantee you’ve got a group of vengeful, now-friendless herders looking for you.

One tiny bright note on this story: if you’re a parent, there’s never been a better time to say that there are no gifts for Christmas this year. I mean, who could blame them? All the reindeer are dead! Santa’s got no way to get around, and he’s gotta get busy growing more before next year (I don’t know why reindeers grow like potatoes in my scenario). Of course, in this case you really need to watch your back if you’re responsible for these murders. Dealing with herders hell-bent on revenge is one thing, but hell hath no fury like a spoilt child spurned.