Describing the action as "very disturbing", the US Department of Agriculture has now won navy permission to try and humanely reduce the herd starting Wednesday.

Department of Agriculture veterinarian, Steve Nusbaum, slammed the navy for killing 60 animals.

"What the Navy was doing was very disturbing," he said. "I feel very strongly that what they were doing was immoral."

After finally receiving a shipment of tranquilizers, Paul Bassler, director of the Department of Agriculture, said his staff would hunt and shoot the animals with tranquilizer-filled darts, and then turn them over to villagers on the island for adoption.

Bassler said that while he disapproved of the animals' treatment by the navy, he agreed that the muddying of water supplies and other land damage by the animals had to be dealt with.

He said the caribou, while a culturally significant animal, was an invasive species, introduced during the Spanish colonial administration.

TERRA.WIRE