GERONIMO KILLED
ALPACA PUT DOWN BY GOVERNMENT VETS AS LONG LEGAL FIGHT TO SAVE HIM ENDS
GERONIMO the alpaca’s owner says she is ‘absolutely devastated’ after the animal was seized from her farm and killed by government vets, just days before a warrant for his destruction expired.
Helen Macdonald (pictured) was not present as around 20 police officers arrived at the Gloucestershire farm yesterday morning, along with staff from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) dressed in overalls, masks and goggles. Despite loud protests from campaigners camped out at the property, Geronimo – who has twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis – was tied with a rope and loaded into a trailer. Just over an hour later, Defra confirmed he had
Police. officers tackle a. protester on Helen. Macdonald’s farm. been euthanised by staff from the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
The warrant for his destruction was due to run out on Saturday.
Ms Macdonald accused the government of ‘murdering’ Geronimo and called for an independent witness to be present at his post-mortem examination. She told reporters: ‘These are actions of abusive, unscientific people.’
She insisted the tests on Geronimo returned false positives and mounted several High Court challenges to save him. Chief veterinary officer Christine
Middlemiss said: ‘No-one wants to have to cull infected animals if it can be avoided but we need to follow the scientific evidence and cull animals that have tested positive for bTB to minimise spread of this insidious disease.’