Johan Andersson, from the Sami village of Gran in Västerbotten, was out as usual to drive around the reindeer.

His winter group has the reindeer at the hill area outside Umeå.

There he found traces of a herd of reindeer that had run at high speed along the road.

A tractor driver told him that the herd had been chased by a dog.

Dog tracks in the snow

Andersson caught up with the herd, noticed that the reindeer were cut but saw no injuries and turned them back the way they had come.

Then he discovered a side track from the road.

- I got off the scooter and went there.

There I saw a calf down in the stream and there was blood everywhere, he says.

There were dog tracks in the snow around the reindeer.

- The reindeer was weak and the throat was bleeding profusely, it was pulsating and then I realized that even if I had tried to take it to the vet, it was too late.

It was just to euthanize it on the spot.

Police report made

According to the Reindeer Husbandry Act, dogs must be kept on a leash within reindeer herding areas.

Johan Andersson does not know whose dog attacked the reindeer.

The police report has been made, but he does not have much hope that there will be any preliminary investigation.

- Honestly, I was deeply pissed off, it just burned in my body.

It's not the dog's fault, it's the owner's fault, I think, that you don't have the dog you might think.

The dog is not up for that.

Is this a recurring problem?

- Every year reindeer are hunted by dogs, but not that they have been mauled this badly.

Most of the time, the reindeer can keep away, but when there is so much snow, 80-90 cm at least, it is difficult for the reindeer to get away, it is sensitive when there is so much snow.

Many people in motion

In the area outside Umeå, many people move, it is both skiers, sled dogs and an area where you rest your dogs.

That's why Johan and his colleagues are now trying to appeal on social media.

They inform about the reindeer's whereabouts and hope that more people will show consideration - go skiing elsewhere and keep their dogs on a leash.

- You start to think about whether you will be able to have the reindeer grazing there, but you can't start running away from our own pastures, we have to be somewhere, says Johan Andersson.