After four years of court battles, protests and celebrity interventions, Geronimo, the UK’s most divisive alpaca, has been put down by government officials.
The eight-year-old animal, who had tested positive twice for bovine tuberculosis and whose fate triggered heated debate across the country, was taken from his home at Shepherds Close Farm in south Gloucestershire on Tuesday.
At about 11am, a team of four vets from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), dressed in protective overalls and supported by at least 10 police officers, led the camelid by rope into a horsebox and drove him to an undisclosed location where he was killed.
Supporters of Geronimo, known as the alpaca angels, some of whom have been camping on the farm to guard the creature, described how he made distressed noises as he was taken. A loud protest ensued, with one supporter briefly arrested after spraying officers with a water pistol, but was quickly de-arrested.
Later, Defra confirmed Geronimo had been euthanised by staff from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) as a “necessary measure to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB)” bringing an end to a saga that has seen Geronimo’s cause raised in the highest courts in the land and at the gates of Downing Street.
His owner, Helen Macdonald, a veterinary nurse who insisted the alpaca was healthy, said the government had put her and her family “through hell” and accused them of “abuse”.
“My understanding was that they had the right to come and destroy Geronimo however they felt appropriate,” she said. “They did not have the right to drag him into a horsebox and drive him away, on his own, without his companions. They rounded up the rest of them and stressed them all out, then they dragged and took him away.
“That’s not animal welfare, that’s animal cruelty.” Speaking at the farm in front of a large banner reading “We are Geronimo”, Macdonald told reporters the alpaca was taken “forcibly”.
“Over the last two weeks we have tried to engage constructively, persistently with [the secretary of state] George Eustice, [the junior minister] Lord Benyon, George Eustice’s special advisers, senior Defra civil servants and multiple MPs and government scientists, proposing a different way forward that would enable to the government to address their stated priorities in tackling bovine tuberculosis and also save Geronimo’s life. The government have refused to engage in good faith.”
She added: “Now we know they were not only ignoring our consistent pleas for constructive dialogue but had no intention of engaging with us. In fact, all the time they were simply planning to murder Geronimo.”
Defra said a postmortem examination would be carried out by veterinary pathologists from the Apha, followed by a bacteriological culture of selected tissue samples, which can take up to three months to process.
The chief veterinary officer, Christine Middlemiss, said: “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.”
Geronimo was brought to England from New Zealand by Macdonald in August 2017 and tested positive for TB in the same month. He had been living in isolation ever since – while he could see some of the other 80 odd alpacas on the farm, he was separated from them by a fence.
In July 2018, a court order for the animal’s destruction was sought by the government and he was given a stay of execution, to be slaughtered by the end of August that year.
Macdonald mounted a legal challenge, pleading with the UK government to allow Geronimo to be retested.
She argued that the Enferplex test is fundamentally flawed and said Geronimo tested positive because he had repeatedly been primed with tuberculin – a purified protein derivative of bovine TB bacteria.
She lost her first attempt in July 2019 and then again in an appeal decision handed down last month. The destruction warrant for Geronimo was due to end on 4 September.
More than 130,000 people had signed a petition calling for him to be spared and celebrities including naturalist Chris Packham and actor Joanna Lumley called for a reprieve.
The prime minister’s father, Stanley Johnson, offered his support, writing in the Sun that he hoped Macdonald and her supporters would “block the men from Defra from carrying out their absurd murderous errand”. Around 30 people also protested outside Downing Street against the ordered killing.
After the alpaca was put down, Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said: “It’s obviously highly distressing for someone to lose animals to TB and that’s a situation that farmers sadly have to face. Our sympathies are with Ms Macdonald and any others that are affected by this terrible disease.”
