Geronimo Will Die: UK Woman Loses Last Court Bid to Save Her Alpaca

The UK’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has ordered the destruction of the alpaca after it tested positive for bovine tuberculosis twice. But Geronimo’s owner from South Gloucestershire believes the testing was flawed.

Geronimo the Alpaca is to be executed on Thursday afternoon or later after a High Court in London dismissed an urgent application from its owner Helen Macdonald to spare her fluffy companion.

The silky black animal arrived to Macdonald’s Wickwar farm in South Gloucestershire from New Zealand but has been in isolation since 2017 after it tested positive for bovine tuberculosis. According to the UK’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) department, the disease is believed to be “one of the greatest animal health threats”.

Geronimo’s second test for the tricky infectious disease also came back positive and the Defra ordered the execution of the eight-year-old animal.  

Macdonald believes that her beloved pet with sad dark eyes is perfectly healthy and it is the testing regime that's flawed. Her legal team insists that the publicity around the case revealed nine other instances when culled animals who'd tested positive for the disease using the same Enferplex testing regime, showed no signs of bovine tuberculosis during post-mortem examination.

Macdonald has been refused a permission to have the animal tested a third time.

In early August, she lost the final appeal to save her animal from slaughter. The urgent application considered by The Honourable Mrs. Justice Mary Stacey at the High Court in London on Wednesday was asking to buy the animal some time before the death sentence as the farmer’s lawyers were seeking more evidence from Defra.

However, the court decided that there was “no prospect” of the alpaca’s owner to reopen a previous ruling, effectively sentencing the animal to his doom.

Macdonald’s legal representatives from Olephant Solicitors said they were “deeply disappointed” by the Wednesday outcome:

“Mrs Justice Stacey did not grant the injunction we were seeking, the result of which is that the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) can enforce the warrant to execute Geronimo at any time after 4.30pm on Thursday, 19 August 2021.”

“Further, the judge did not order the disclosure we had sought regarding nine other camelids that had previously tested positive for bovine TB after multiple priming yet showed no signs of bovine TB post-mortem,” the firm added.

Protesters demonstrate against the ruling that Geronimo, an Alpaca believed to be carrying TB, has to be euthanised, in London, Britain, August 9, 2021

© REUTERS / PETER NICHOLLS

According to lawyers, they were “surprised and concerned” by the justice’s approach to take Defra’s statements about full compliance with the court’s requests for all the relevant information at face value in light of recent revelations about nine camelids supposedly stricken with TB.

However, the government has maintained that they had looked “very carefully” on the testing results and all the options for Geronimo.

A Defra spokesperson said on Wednesday that they were “sympathetic to Ms Macdonald’s situation, just as we are with everyone with animals affected by this terrible disease.”

“While nobody wants to cull infected animals, we need to do everything we can to tackle this disease to stop it spreading and to protect the livelihoods of those affected,” Defra said.

According to Defra’s executive agency the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha), Macdonald would have an opportunity to arrange Geronimo’s death herself.

Alpacas are for life, not just for Christmas. #alpaca #alpacas #Geronimo #savegeronimo pic.twitter.com/WhY1H44suK

— Minds Behind the Music (@OfficialMBTM) August 16, 2021

​The saddened farmer said she will not planning to break the law to protect the alpaca but warned that that Geronimo’s death would be watched over by the world thanks to a camera overlooking his pen that has also been carefully guarded by campaigners calling themselves “alpaca angels”.

Earlier in the month protesters marched through Westminster to protest the animal’s death. Over 130,000 people have signed a petition calling on the prime minister to prevent the execution.

Protesters demonstrate against the ruling that Geronimo, an Alpaca believed to be carrying TB, has to be euthanised, in London, Britain, August 9, 2021

© REUTERS / PETER NICHOLLS