The incident occured in the winter of 2019, and when the driver later shared his video on Facebook, the clip sparked several complaints from animal rights groups. The footage can be seen here.
The resulting court case dragged on until the summer of this year, when the lorry driver was handed a suspended sentence and a fine of SEK 4,820 (around €447).
The driver then appealed against that ruling, but as Swedish state news channel SVT reports, the Court of Appeal has reached the same verdict.
According to SVT, the driver said during the clip: “These will be Norrland’s most well-trained reindeer and I am pushing them.”
The driver is said to have used the following caption when uploading the clip to Facebook: “Did you know that with a Volvo on its heels, a reindeer can reach a breathtaking 45 km/h?”
When questioned in court, the trucker said he was actually driving at around 15–25 kilometres per hour. The driver added that he had just exaggerated the speed to generate more interest on social media. He described the video as a bad joke and stressed he just wished to overtake the reindeer and did not intend to cause any animal suffering.
The trucker also went on to say that he had received threats as a result of the clip.
However, the Court of Appeal were not convinced by the man’s defence. As a result, the suspended sentence remains and he will have to pay the €447 fine.
Photos: pxhere.com (left) / Febiyan, Unsplash (right). Both images cropped and used for illustrative purposes only.