GMB: Farmer says putting down Geronimo ‘for better of society’

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Geronimo the alpaca has shot to fame in recent days, with his owner Helen Macdonald fighting an order to have him euthanised. Geronimo has tested positive for bovine tuberculosis twice, triggering the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) to order he be euthanised.

Ms Macdonald believes the tests are false positives and has appealed the ruling.

She said: “They’ve known since 2016 that those tests produce false positives if you give an alpaca more than two shots of tuberculin within a 12-month period.

“If George Eustice or the chief vet aren’t willing to look at the evidence and accept that the drug can produce an immune response that can produce a false positive then they need to take a look at their positions.”

She attended the High Court in London to appeal his euthanisation however lost the case and now a warrant has been signed for his destruction.

Read More: Geronimo: volunteers stand guard to save sentenced alpaca

Geronimo has seen an outpouring of support from around the world, with a petition to save the alpaca gaining more than 113,000 signatures.

Geronimo was imported from New Zealand by Ms Macdonald in 2017.

Now a live stream has been set up so fans can view the alpaca as he roams around his enclosure.

On Monday, the Government insisted all the evidence on the animal’s condition had been “looked at very carefully”.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We know how distressing losing animals to TB is for anyone. That is why the Environment Secretary has looked at this extremely carefully and interrogated all the evidence.

“The fact remains that Geronimo has sadly tested positive twice using a highly specific and reliable and validated test.

“This is something the Environment Secretary has looked at very carefully.”

Mr Johnson’s father Stanley Johnson has joined the campaign to save Geronimo.

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Mr Johnson said that the alpaca should be given “a stay of execution”.

He said: “As far as I’m concerned it is absolutely possible and necessary for the secretary of state George Eustice to have a stay of execution.

“Why? Because when this animal was tested when he came to England, yes there might have been a positive result, and the owner thinks it was a false positive, but that is several years ago.

“An animal that is diseased would not have survived five years, that’s for sure.

“There is a case, surely, to let this lady have one test now, she says there is a new test now, surely that is the right thing to do – not just say ‘the law must take its course’.”

On Monday a group of around 30 people gathered outside DEFRA’s headquarters in London and marched on to Downing Street.

They included fellow alpaca farmers who had lost animals in similar circumstances.

Speaking from her farm in South Gloucestershire, Ms Macdonald criticised the Government for refusing to change its mind.

She said: “Unfortunately they are still misquoting data.

“What they did to Geronimo was not a validated test – they knew what they were doing.

“We are just asking to have him tested with something appropriate. I get they have policy to follow but there are other ways, and they don’t have to kill him. He is safe in isolation here.

“They’ve always been happy with that and he’s not a public health risk. They won’t test his friends, so they are obviously not worried that he is going to give them TB.

“No one has died here from TB in four years, so I just don’t understand why it has to be this drastic.”

Ms Macdonald said that when Defra officials do attend her farm to euthanise Geronimo she will not break the law.

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