GERONIMO’S LAST STAND
Owner fights to save £15,000 alpaca from being put down after officials say he’s got TB
A CHAMPION alpaca named Geronimo is facing certain death unless his owner can defeat officials who believe he has tuberculosis.
Helen Macdonald has a herd of 75 alpacas that she uses to make luxury products including scarves and pashminas at her farm.
But she has been locked in an 11month legal fight with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs after Geronimo, worth £15,000, tested positive for TB.
Miss Macdonald, 47, a registered veterinary nurse who started breeding alpacas 16 years ago, believes the test was flawed.
In a plea to farming minister George Eustice, she argued that the five-yearold pedigree alpaca, which she imported from New Zealand where he had won competitions for his jet black wool, has shown no signs of illness and asked for further tests.
But Defra has refused to back down. Its lawyers last week wrote to Miss Macdonald warning they will take her to court to get a warrant to go to her farm in Wickwar, Gloucestershire, and kill the animal unless she agrees by tomorrow to have him put down.
Miss Macdonald last night accused officials of mounting a campaign of ‘bullying and intimidation’ that has left her suffering anxiety.
She said: ‘ They are being bloodyminded and heavy-handed. It is kill at all costs, basically. They are saying you have no right to any investigation, he has to die.’
Miss Macdonald voluntarily agreed for Geronimo to have a blood test for TB shortly after he was imported last August.
She believes the test came back with a false positive because he had been injected with tuberculin as part of skin tests conducted just before he left New Zealand and also nine months earlier.
A further blood test last December also came back positive, but it took place only weeks after he was given another dose of tuberculin as part of a skin test.
The British Alpaca Society has written to Mr Eustice to voice ‘grave concerns’. Chairman Ron Mackintosh wrote: ‘Our belief is that this animal is a victim of a false positive result due to multiple tuberculin injections.’
But after reviewing the case, Mr Eustice last month wrote to
‘Bullying and intimidation’
Miss Macdonald to say he had ‘reluctantly concluded that the decision to slaughter Geronimo compulsorily must stand’.
He added: ‘It is the right decision in terms of the Government’s responsibility for controlling this terrible disease.’
In a letter received by Miss Macdonald last Tuesday, Defra’s lawyers gave her seven days to confirm she will have Geronimo put down or they would apply for a warrant to kill the animal. Miss Macdonald last night called for Defra to carry out further tests. She said: ‘If they are sure he has got the disease, it will not hurt them. I have volunteered to pay for it. The problem is they are not listening to anyone because they are arrogant.
‘This is bullying and intimidation. I am suffering, I am constantly in an anxious state.’
She added that Geronimo, who she describes as ‘charming’ and a ‘true gentleman’ had shown no signs of being unwell since he tested positive for tuberculosis.
An online petition calling for the decision to be overturned has been signed by 4,500 people.
A Defra spokesman expressed sympathy but said: ‘Bovine TB causes devastation and distress and that is why we must have robust procedures in place to reduce risk of it spreading.’