A lawsuit filed against the Yukon government for slaughtering 51 reindeer belonging to Lloyd and Stella Gregory in 2005 has been thrown out of court.

The government applied to the Yukon Supreme Court earlier this year to have the case dismissed because no action had been taken on the file for five years or more.

Justice Leigh Gower granted the government's request Monday morning following a brief hearing Monday morning at which the Gregorys appeared and represented themselves.

The law permits cases to be thrown out if the file has been dormant for five years or longer.

The couple filed documents this past spring indicating they'd run into crossroads with the local law firm they'd hired initially. They said they needed more time because they were representing themselves and were unfamiliar with the law and procedures.

Staff from Environment Yukon seized the reindeer on March 30, 2005 from the Gregorys' Northern Splendor Reindeer Farm and moved them to a nearby pen along the Mayo Road.

Staff, according to court documents, had developed fears the Gregorys planned to turn the reindeer loose and perhaps unleash a domestic animal disease into the wild because they couldn't afford to keep feeding them.

Beginning in the early-morning hours of May 21, 2005, conservation officers and other Department of Environment employees, a dozen in all, rounded up the reindeer over several hours and shot them inside the pen.

Four calves were bludgeoned to death.

Some staff described the affair in a press conference afterward as the most distasteful job they'd ever had to do as wildlife managers, and the saddest day in their careers.

The Gregorys called it an unnecessary slaughter and a disturbing gong show.

They related how reindeer were chased to and fro by staff trying to herd them into the killing area, while the animals were being driven into a tizzy by gunfire and people chasing them everywhere.

The couple subsequently sued the government for more than $1 million for damages and emotional stress.

A 177-page document detailing the history of their case back to 2004, including correspondence with then-premier Dennis Fentie, was filed Aug. 31 by the Gregorys, in response to the government's request to have the case thrown out.

The couple maintains the government pushed them into a corner when it reclassified reindeer in 2003 from game farm animals to wildlife as part of the process of devolving federal authority to the Yukon government.

The reclassification meant they could no longer sell – or even own – wildlife because of the new legislation, they say in the document.

The change in legislation, the Gregorys maintain, was the real reason why the government agreed to purchase the Yukon Game Farm from the late Danny Nowlan, not because it wanted a research and wildlife viewing facility.

The new legislation had also put a lock on Nowlan's game farm, just as it did with their reindeer farm, they suggest.

Without the ability to raise revenue through reindeer sales, the Gregorys were unable to properly care for their herd, they say in the documents.

The government did at one time provide $22,000 for feed.

But the Gregorys say in the documents the government refused to provide more money, and they eventually reached a point where they could no longer afford to feed the animals.

Documents filed by the government indicate the animals were seized after government officials heard repeated threats through media interviews that the couple might have to run the animals loose to forage for themselves if they didn't get more feed money.

In the document filed Aug. 31, the Gregorys maintain the reindeer were not diseased.

"The reindeer were not infected with the disease Johnnies that the government claims they had,” reads the submission by the Gregorys.

"The reindeer did not have to die at all nor in the manner that they did, through a most disgusting, cruel and inhumane way on May 21, 2005.”

Environment spokeswoman Nancy Campbell said this morning some samples taken from the dead reindeer following the cull did indeed test positive for the Johne's disease.

Government officials explained at the time the decision to kill the reindeer was made in consultation with several veterinarians inside and outside the Yukon.

It was agreed the elimination of the entire herd and proper disposal of the carcasses was the only absolute way of making sure there would be no spread of disease into the wild, staff explained back then.

The Gregorys, however, said at the time the whole disease issue was a red herring put up by the Yukon Party government to mask its agenda to eliminate game farming of reindeer in the Yukon.

The couple could not be reached for comment Tuesday nor this morning.