Is Geronimo the death row alpaca the victim of a miscarriage of justice?
Government officials want him dead after he tested positive for TB. But his devoted owner, who’s spent £20,000 fighting his case, swears he’s perfectly healthy ...
There’s Cappuccino, Cody, Panache, Liberty, Chantelle, Madison, Jemima and even a Lady Jane Grey (so named for her regal bearing and the colour of her coat).
But if there’s one alpaca who really lives up to his quirky name in helen Macdonald’s 75-strong herd, it’s five-yearold Geronimo.
Unlike his Native American namesake, this particular Geronimo’s ‘last stand’ is against officials from the Department for environment, Food & rural Affairs (Defra) who, for the past year, have been trying put him to sleep because, they claim, he has potentially deadly tuberculosis (TB), which he could pass to other animals or even humans.
Not so, says helen, a 47-year-old veterinary nurse, who robustly maintains that they are trying to kill a healthy animal.
Geronimo, she says, is as healthy as the rest of the herd, but has been wrongly diagnosed because of a mixup in the tests. And she is so determined to save him she has spent £20,000 on legal fees to stop Defra forcibly sending in a vet to give him a lethal injection — or a bolt between the eyes.
‘seven times I have given Geronimo his last supper — grass pellets, which he adores,’ says helen, who raises her herd with her elderly mother on a picturesque Cotswolds farm in the village of Wickwar, south Gloucestershire.
‘ seven times, I haven’t known whether they will come the next day and slaughter him. every time they send me notice of a cull date, I have to prepare myself for the fact they could get a court order to come onto the farm and kill Geronimo.
‘so far on each occasion, I have managed to get my lawyer to win him a reprieve — or they have called it off — sometimes with just two hours’ notice. It’s an emotional roller-coaster and has certainly been the worst year of my life.
‘All I want is one last fair re-test so that a beautiful, healthy animal isn’t needlessly going to his death.
‘ But it’s like David and Goliath — me versus a Government department that will only stick to their protocols.’
The positive test, helen believes, is a mistake caused by Geronimo being tested for TB in New Zealand, before he was brought over to the UK last August. Before he could be transported, he was checked for TB using an older form of the test, which utilises the chemical tuberculin — a purified form of the TB bacteria — which he passed.
But helen thinks the doses of bacteria that he’d been given for three previous tests were the reason he failed a newer type of examination when he arrived
Thankfully, today Geronimo is blissfully unaware that he is on death row, let alone that he is the most famous alpaca in the world.
since appearing in the Daily Mail last week, two petitions supporting his cause have collected nearly 10,000 signatures. he also has his own accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
Today, as he meditatively chews on the long grass in his paddock, which is also his quarantine, Geronimo looks like a teddy bear crossed with Bambi.
Only his constantly swivelling ears, on each side of his goofy topknot, are a clue that he is wondering why he’s getting so much extra attention.
Geronimo may have been the last great Native American leader to hold out against American settlers — and have been famed for his multiple escapes, but the name also means ‘ he who yawns’ in Apache.
As the afternoon rolls on, it’s clearly that this alpaca’s resistance is more of the passive kind.
Under Defra orders, he spends his days in a specially fenced paddock, to keep out badgers and other wildlife, and away from the rest of his companions, even though alpacas are herd animals who love company.
his time is spent sunbathing. ‘Alpacas spread out on their backs like starfish to get their tummies warm,’ helen tells me. he also loves rolling in dusty patches of ground.
Yet his jet-black coat — which is one of the reasons helen brought him to the UK for £15,000, looks as plush and velvety as a new soft toy.
helen, who has bred alpacas for 16 years, is clearly captivated. Although I am asked to keep my distance because of the quarantine rules, she has no fear for her own health, and happily strokes and feeds him as she leads him in a collar to see me.
‘ They all have distinct personalities,’ helen says. ‘Like the others, Geronimo looks up and twitches his ears if he is called. he is a bit of a greedy one and loves to eat. he always has a smile on his face.’
his name, she explains, was a happy accident. ‘Usually I give the alpacas born here a name with the same first letter as their mum. But as I imported him, his breeder in New Zealand named him.
‘I don’t think the campaign to save him would have quite the same ring to it if she’d called him Fred.
‘I feels like this was meant to be. I am doing this not only to get accurate testing for Geronimo but also for other alpacas in this country.’
Indeed, up until about 20 years ago, alpacas were an exotic sight in the UK, seen only in petting zoos.
A mini-version of the llama, they originate from south America where they were first bred by native people for their silky coats.
In the 1500s, the invading spanish Conquistadors slaughtered nearly 98 per cent of them. however, when a small number were found living in the mountains in the 19th century, alpacas started to be domesticated again.
From their first imports into the UK in the late 1990s, they have now grown to a population of 45,000 in herds all over the country.
A grown alpaca can produce a fleece of 5lb to 13lb in a range of a rich colours. After helen’s herd is shorn every summer, she sends them off to be made into pashminas, scarves and pillows.
Yet alpacas are more than a business venture for helen. she was just ten when she saw her first at a livestock show in Australia, where she lived with her family for a few years.
‘I saw some in a pen and thought they were so precious and unicorn-like. Then and there, I said I wanted to keep them when I grew up.’
By the age of 19, helen had returned to the UK to train as a veterinary nurse. But it was not until 2002 that she spotted more alpacas at the royal Bath & West agricultural
‘Seven times, we have won him a reprieve’
show. Within a few months, Helen had bought her first group of three.
Soon, one of her specialities became breeding black ones and two years ago, when she started looking for a new male, she was immediately drawn to Geronimo, then living a peaceful existence on a hilly farm in New Zealand. After stringent checks, he arrived last year at 2am on a cargo plane.
Because alpacas are not classed as livestock in the same way as cattle or sheep, there was no legal obligation for Helen to test him again for TB once he arrived as he had already been given the allclear when he left home.
But thinking she was being a responsible owner, Helen offered to give Geronimo — as well as the rest of the herd — a new kind of blood test when he arrived, which tests for seven different kinds of antigens — substances in the bloodstream that trigger an immune response — to the disease.
Every other animal passed. However, Helen says that because Geronimo had already been primed with three doses of tuberculin over the space of 24 months for the older- style test — which checks if animals develop swellings in response to a small amount of the purified bacteria — it came up with a positive result.
A few days after Geronimo was given the new blood test, Helen’s phone rang.
‘My mum answered it and then called me in floods of tears. The Defra official told her that Geronimo had TB and he would be culled the next week.’
It was no empty threat. A total of 1,684 camelids (members of the camel family), alpacas and llamas have been slaughtered in the UK because of possible TB infection since 2011. However with the help of her lawyer, Helen has so far been able to win a stay of execution after the British Alpaca Society — and the test-makers themselves — expressed concerns about whether the new tests have been carried out fairly.
Helen has also pointed out that Geronimo was given doses of tuberculin designed for cattle, even though they are ten times his weight.
‘In February, I was invited up to a meeting in London with three officials who said it was possible he came into contact with TBinfected possum in New Zealand — but it’s pure supposition.
‘All I want is one more fair test, when Geronimo has not been primed first, but they have refused to test him again until he’s dead, when it’s irreversible.’
Indeed, while Defra says it is sympathetic to Helen and Geronimo, it has so far not diverged from saying that it has ‘robust procedures’ in place to cut the risk of TB spreading.
Helen says it’s like ‘talking to a brick wall’.
‘They won’t listen. They won’t look again at the science. Geronimo has no symptoms of the disease, like coughing, or weight loss. If anything, he is putting weight on.
‘If he had TB he would have already been dead because alpacas generally die within six months of getting it. Yet they will only let us test Geronimo again when they have slaughtered him.
‘I have done everything in my power to make it easy for them to do the right thing, but Defra won’t listen. Their solution is to kill everything and write the same official letters giving me new slaughter dates.
‘I have panic attacks worrying about when the next one is going to arrive.
‘ I am not asking to keep a diseased animal alive. If he tests positive this last time — when he has not been primed with tuberculin — then of course he will have to go because TB is a terrible disease.’
Now on summer’s evenings, Helen strolls out onto the pastures behind her pretty Cotswold stone farmhouse with a glass of wine.
‘I wouldn’t say alpacas are cuddly, but they do like to gather round and sit down with me as if they are around a camp fire. They are so peaceful and loving to be with.’
Helen’s herd still includes Fluffy, the 18-year- old female who was one of the first three alpacas that she bought.
As they can live for up to 20 years, Helen hopes that if she fights hard enough, Geronimo can reach the same ripe old age.
In fact, Helen is risking her livelihood on it. If she fails, on top of her legal fees, she stands to lose over £100,000 because, while the investigation continues, she is unable to buy or sell her animals.
‘Last summer, when they first said he was positive, it would have been so easy for me to say “Yes, OK, cull him”. Then I could have gone on as normal.
‘But I brought Geronimo over here from the other side of the world and the guilt that — as a result — he is now facing an early death is enormous.’
Still, in her darkest moments, Helen has been forced to imagine what it would be like if her legal fight fails — and Defra gets a warrant to come and destroy him.
‘If another test definitely finds out that Geronimo is infected, then I can’t stop it. When I first imagined that happening, I thought I could not stand to be there and watch him being put to death.
‘But then in all my years as a veterinary nurse, I remembered I have never not been with an animal when it’s been put to sleep — and it wouldn’t be fair for him to die alone either.
‘Whatever the outcome, I owe it to Geronimo to do my very best for him.
‘I won’t give up until I get him once last chance.’
TO SIGN Helen Macdonald’s petition, go to www.change.org and search for ‘Geronimo the alpaca’.
‘It’s like talking to a brick wall — they won’t listen’ ‘I feel so guilty he might die because of me’