Western Morning News (Saturday)
‘I’ll fight to save my alpaca’s life’
Owner’s pledge as 80,000 call on PM to spare ‘TB infected’ Geronimo
ANIMAL lovers across the Westcountry have put their names to a petition calling on Boris Johnson to stop the killing of a stud alpaca that has twice tested positive for bovine TB.
The row goes to the heart of the debate on eradicating the disease in the South West, a bTB hotspot.
The petition has attracted almost 80,000 signatures in an effort to save Geronimo, a six-year-old alpaca from New Zealand now living in south Gloucestershire.
He was condemned to death by a High Court judge after twice testing positive for the disease, which has devastated livestock farming and prompted the launch of the badger cull, which continues in many parts of Britain. However, Geronimo’s owner Helen Macdonald rejects the test results that say the alpaca has bTB. She said she will “stand in the way of any gunman who comes to destroy Geronimo”.
She added: “They’ve picked on the wrong woman. There is no way that I will put him to sleep.”
The 50-year-old vet and alpaca breeder has repeatedly appealed to the Prime Minister and Environment Secretary George Eustice to halt the destruction order, which she claims is based on inaccurate testing.
But Mr Eustice, who comes from a Cornish farming family and is the MP for Camborne and Redruth, has
said he will not change his stance.
He added: “My own family have a pedigree herd of South Devon cattle and we have lost cows to TB, so I know how distressing it can be and have huge sympathy for farmers who suffer loss. I have looked at this case several times over the last three years and gone through all of the evidence with the Chief Vet and other experts in detail. Sadly, Geronimo has tested positive twice using a highly specific and reliable test.”
Wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham and actress Joanna Lumley are among those who have spoken out in support of Geronimo.
In a tweet on Thursday, Packham asked Mr Johnson and Mr Eustice: “Quick question, what do you think will happen if Geronimo is euthanised today & the post mortem shows he doesn’t have bTB? Won’t that be a PR and policy disaster? #savegeronimo.”
Ms Macdonald claims the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has “lied” about the tests carried out on Geronimo which she believes resulted in “false positives”.
She told Sky News on Friday: “This is about Government behaviour and official behaviour. They’re trying to uphold the regime. He came from a farm in New Zealand where there’s been no TB since 1994. It’s bonkers. If there was disease present we wouldn’t be having this conversation, he would’ve died years ago. But he’s fit and healthy.”
The court order came into effect on Thursday. Defra now has 30 days to visit Ms Macdonald’s farm in south Gloucestershire and put him down.
Ms Macdonald said: “The entire industry is up in arms because this really is the senseless destruction of an innocent animal. They have a choice here. They don’t have to kill him; they could at least test him first. I don’t want Geronimo’s last moments to be of being caught by a man who will put a gun to his head before he’s shot, but then I don’t want to consent to having him euthanised.”