The owner of Geronimo, an alpaca who was put down this morning following a years-long legal battle over positive bovine tuberculosis test results, has hit out the government for failing to “engage” with campaigners who pleaded for his life to be spared.
“I’m absolutely disgusted by this government. They know that they set him up four years ago with incompetence and bullying and a falsified test that has no validity and yet [here] we are this morning, Geronimo has been manhandled out of my farm,” Helen Macdonald told the media from her South Gloucestershire residence.
“These are barbaric actions of unscientific, abusive people in government and tax payers are paying for this.”
In a statement, released earlier, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed: “bTB-positive alpaca known as ‘Geronimo’ has been euthanised to prevent the spread of disease.”
It came a short time after Defra officials, accompanied by Avon and Somerset Police, arrived at Ms Macdonald’s farm wearing head-to-toe protection in Wickwar, near Bristol, to take the animal away.
After dramatic scenes in which he was seen running away and being dragged back by officers, Geronimo was eventually loaded into a trailer and driven to an undisclosed location where he was euthanised by staff from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
