Though Jovsset Ante Sara, the 25-year-old herder, argued that the order would breach human rights norms and make it unable for him to make a living, judges in Oslo ultimately decided the slaughter was necessary to ensure the sustainability of the land, the Telegraph reported.
"[The ruling] shows the court does not believe the Sami people can decide on their own destiny," Trond Pedersen Biti, Sara's lawyer, told the Guardian. "The government seems to believe that the reindeer herders do not know best."
However, despite the loss, Sara plans to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights, the New York Post reported. As a herder from the indigenous Sami community, whose ancestral trades includes reindeer herding, Sara plans to use the tradition as part of his appeal to the human rights court.
In early December, Sara's sister, Maret Anne Sara, made headline news after hanging a curtain made of 400 bullet-ridden reindeer skulls outside of Norway's Parliament, according to the Telegraph.
The case against Sara and his reindeer has been ongoing since 2014.
