The Saami people are the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia, they live in the Sápmi region, which stretches out over four countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia). There are about 50 - 80 000 Saami in all, but only a few percent of these keep reindeer.

As many other indigenous people, the Saami has faced oppression in many ways, and their traditionally nomadic lifestyle has suffered under the influence of modern society. But still, the way the reindeer are kept, wandering from winter to summer graceland persists. Modernized rules on animal care and slaughter procedures are though making life hard for the small families with small herds and scarce resources.

The Norwegian government tries to reduce the number of reindeer, and have called upon a major down-sizing of the industry. Accordingly, 80 000 reindeer need to be slaughtered to meet the governmental plans. Such a major influx of meet into the market will drastically lower the prices, the few remaining producers will suffer badly and the whole reindeer meat market is feared to collapse.