6 Sept 2021
Helen Macdonald had no prior warning of Geronimo’s seizure by authorities, and therefore had no time to make preparations for him to be taken in a more humane fashion.
James Westgate
Job Title
Image © SWNS
The owner of an alpaca taken by force before being euthanised by Government vets has vowed to continue her fight to expose flaws in the bTB testing regime.
Geronimo – an alpaca the APHA maintains was infected with bTB – was taken from the farm where he lived in Wickwar, south Gloucestershire, on 31 August by employees of the APHA accompanied by officers from Avon and Somerset Police.
In distressing scenes broadcast around the world, police officers blocked roads before forcibly gaining entry to the farm and assisting a team from the APHA in seizing the alpaca, who was dragged into a horse box and taken away for slaughter.
Owner, RVN Helen Macdonald, was given no prior warning of the seizure by authorities, which meant she had no chance to make preparations for Geronimo to be taken in a more humane fashion.
Ms Macdonald said: “They gave us no warning; both ends of the lane leading to the farm were blocked and police manhandled their way on to the farm with APHA officials. They gave us no chance to put Geronimo in a stall or get him prepared to be taken away in a fashion that would have caused him less distress.”
She added: “They just looped a lead round his nose and dragged him into a horse box; it was disgusting and completely inhumane. Instead of giving us some indication of when they were coming, they just swooped and behaved in a brutal fashion that traumatised Geronimo beyond belief, ensuring his last few hours on Earth must have been horrific.
“This is about punishment, pure and simple. It was a personal attack to suppress any challenge to the Government’s flawed testing processes and its bTB control policies – they wanted to show what happens to people who challenge the system.”
The British Alpaca Society has since written an open letter to numerous recipients – including the prime minister, secretary of state for Defra George Eustice and the office of the UK CVO Christine Middlemiss – describing the treatment of Geronimo as “abhorrent”.
Following the seizure – at which she was not present – Ms Macdonald immediately asked for an independent vet to attend the postmortem as she has long refuted claims her beloved pet was infected with the disease.
Her request was turned down by the APHA for “health and safety, COVID-19 and security reasons”.
The APHA also added that its standard operating procedures for suspected TB clinical cases and TB test positive animals do not allow for the obtaining of samples for private testing.
Ms Macdonald now wants full details of the postmortem results – results she believes would prove Geronimo did not have clinical TB, adding that the APHA claims to the contrary were just “spin and propaganda”.
She added: “The shit is going to hit the fan now; this is not going away, we are going to carry on the fight – look at all the animals we have lost; look at all the cattle that have been badly tested and all the badgers that have been killed for no good reason.
“This has just exposed the whole bloody thing and they have martyrised Geronimo now, who will stand for every animal wrongly killed in this country until we get this sorted.”
Speaking at the time of Geronimo’s death, Ms Macdonald called for the immediate resignation of Mr Eustice, and accused UK CVO Christine Middlemiss of a lack of transparency and “hiding behind weak excuses”.
However, Dr Middlemiss defended the decision, adding that the Government’s approach to tackling bTB was based on the best available scientific evidence.
She said: “This is a terribly sad situation and our sympathies remain with those affected by this devastating disease.
“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 and ultimately eradicate the biggest threat to animal health in this country.
“Not only is this essential to protect the livelihoods of our farming industry and rural communities, but it is also necessary to avoid more TB cases in humans.”
