Rudolph's gruesome fate

Supermarket chain Lidl is among those in Britain selling 'tender and flavoursome' reindeer meat as a 'sliced and smoked' seasonal delicacy for £4.99, seeking to establish it as a popular meat in the way it is elsewhere in Europe.

MailOnline has tracked the source of the trade in reindeer meat and uncovered how Santa's antlered helpers are slaughtered in a remote 'polar gulag' region where Stalin once sent his political prisoners to die.

The tundra village of Yar-Sale in polar Russia, 1317 miles north-east of Moscow, is a place where winter temperatures dip to minus 30C or below with fearsome, bone-chilling winds.

It always enjoys a white Christmas.

But the brutal truth of reindeer slaughter is far from cosy: The animals are stunned before their throats are slit, the blood is collected and their heads are then cut off. The EU-regulated practice will shock families experimenting with the meat as a festive treat. 

In the Yamal peninsula reindeer easily outnumber people in territory almost the size of England.

In Yar-Sale, 19 miles above the Arctic Circle, is Russia's only major abbatoir which is approved to export venison to the European Union.

Our pictures show how the reindeer are killed at a 'state-of-the-art' Finnish-built abattoir which carries EU approval for its processes. Russian government watchdog officials have raised worrying concerns over the hygiene conditions in a Siberian killing chamber with a capacity of 20,000 animals a season, a hefty chunk of the 2,400 tons of venison on the market this year.

This slaughterhouse, run by company Yamal Reindeer, has satellite abattoirs in other villages where more animals are killed for what the Russians view as a meat source of growing appeal and export value.

Reindeer fattened on the local aromatic herbs and grasses of pristine summer pastures are stunned by electric shock to the forehead, immobilised, and slung upside down on a hanging line.

At this point, the graceful animal - its antlers already removed - is still alive, though paralysed and unconscious from the high voltage charge.

At this moment, the meat for the Christmas dinner tables of Britain and other EU countries is not the sole consideration.

A sign on the wall reads: 'Blood Gathering Zone', as shown in pictures from a promotion video made by the company Yamal Reindeer.

A white-coated technician slits the throat of the helpless deer to drain the deep red blood from its body.

Later, this will be used to export especially to China where it has medicinal uses, and for blood baths, believed in Siberia and Asia to restore flagging male libidos.

'Blood is the highest value element of the reindeer,' explained one worker.

A freeze-drying reindeer blood production line is in operation in this high-tech plant.

Next, the animal is beheaded, and it is taken to the 'Skin Removal Zone', because the pelt too can be sold.

Then the internal organs are removed, remaining blood is washed away from the carcass, it is weighed and and stamped.

The carcass is then frozen whole or chopped to pieces before being transported to supermarkets in the West.

German-owned chain Lidl makes the point that the animals are 'slaughtered in strict accordance with EU guidelines' and says it 'takes issues of animal welfare as well as environmental protection very seriously'. It says 'the butchers and the local vet have been trained in Germany to EU standards and our supplier pays regular visits to the site to ensure standards are maintained to the highest level'.

Lidl is believed to be the only major supermarket chain stocking reindeer in the UK, and sells thinly sliced, smoked meat available for £4.99 a pack.

(dailymail.co.uk)