MINISTER: SORRY, BUT GERONIMO HAS TO DIE
The heartbreaking f inal verdict on alp aca who’s t ested positive for TB and whose fate is dividing Brit ain
CABINET Minister George Eustice today defends the decision to put down Geronimo the alpaca – despite the owner telling him he will have ‘blood on his hands’.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday, the Environment Minister admits it is ‘souldestroying’ to have to kill animals, but insists it is the right decision to stop the spread of disease. The MP – and former farmer – says: ‘While there are moments of joy and optimism in farming, every livestock farmer has to get used to their share of tragedy and loss.’
A High Court judge has ruled that Geronimo has tuberculosis on the basis of two positive tests. But his owner, Helen Macdonald, today claims the tests were ‘misused’ and calls for Mr Eustice to intervene as a last resort. She has also
appealed to Carrie Johnson, the Prime Minister’s wife, to save the condemned animal, and has won the support of celebrities, including actress Joanna Lumley.
Writing for the first time on the issue that has split Britain, Mr Eustice tells how his own farming family had to kill a beloved cow who tested positive for TB.
He says Rose was ‘a cow that my father said was one of the best he had ever seen. To make matters worse, she had sadly lost her calf the previous year. As a result, she had to be removed for slaughter having never had a living calf. It was soul-destroying.’
Mr Eustice says he has looked at Geronimo’s case ‘in detail’ several times over the past three years. Explaining why he has decided not to call off the death sentence, he writes that the test used on Geronimo is ‘ over 99 per cent accurate with a “false positive” in only 0.34 per cent of cases.
‘However, it is not a very sensitive test. That is to say, in around 30 per cent of cases it won’t detect an infection even when one is present. Two consecutive positive test results is a very strong indicator of the presence of the disease.’
The Minister also spoke of the dangers of bovine TB to livestock and in part blamed ‘inaction’ by Tony Blair’s government for the situation. He writes: ‘There are no easy answers when it comes to dealing with TB in cattle’ and adds that each week on average more than 500 animals have to be culled due to i nfection i n England. ‘Behind every one of those cases is a farmer who has suffered loss and tragedy,’ he says.
Ms Macdonald, 50, has repeatedly appealed to Boris Johnson and Mr Eustice to halt the destruction order which means Geronimo – named after an Apache chief – must be put down within 30 days of it coming into effect last Thursday.
More than 90,000 people have signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to step in, and tomorrow hundreds of supporters are expected to attend a protest march in Whitehall.
But Downing Street has refused to grant a stay of execution.
In an impassioned interview with The Mail on Sunday, Ms Macdonald accused officials of dishonesty and said: ‘I haven’t accepted for a moment that Geronimo is going to die.’
Speaking at her Gloucestershire farm, she said: ‘My plan is simple. I’m asking George Eustice to pick up the phone and justify to me how his officials can be so dishonest and yet nobody – certainly not him – has noticed. They keep saying this is a valid test when it patently isn’t. It is an abuse of their power and position.’
She has previously said Mr Eustice would have ‘blood on his hands’ if the destruction order was executed.
Geronimo, an eight-year old male, was imported from New Zealand in 2017. He was given four ‘skin tests’ for TB before he left, which involves
‘I’m not a criminal – I do not want to be arrested’
the injection of a protein called tuberculin, which were negative.
Ms Macdonald, then gave him the voluntary Enferplex test when he arrived, which gave a positive result – which she attributed to the tuberculin from the previous skin tests.
She said: ‘I don’t know what I’ll do when the Defra contractors come [to put Geronimo down].
‘I’m not a criminal. I don’t want to be arrested. But I’m not going to assist them, I’m not going to lead Geronimo out in a head collar.’
Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss said: ‘I know the devastation that TB can cause farmers, their communities and their animals. While I sympathise with Ms Macdonald’s situation, we need to follow the scientific evidence and cull animals that have tested positive for TB, to minimise spread of this insidious disease.’
A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: ‘We are sympathetic to Ms Macdonald’s situation, which is why the t esting results and options f or Geronimo have been very carefully considered, as well as passing several stages of thorough legal scrutiny.’