Geronimo the alpaca has had his execution delayed by a day, while his owner has said the extension is because Defra wants her to do their “dirty work”.
The animal has twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis, and the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) ordered he be euthanised.
Bovine tuberculosis is an infectious disease of cattle which can also infect and cause disease in many other mammals including humans, deer, pigs and domesticated animals such as cats and dogs.
Geronimo's owner, Helen Macdonald, who imported him from New Zealand, believes the tests are returning false positives, but was refused permission to have him tested a third time.
Ms Macdonald last week lost her last-ditch appeal to have her beloved pet saved at the High Court in London, and a warrant was subsequently signed for his destruction.
Officials were expected to arrive from today, but Ms Macdonald, who lives on a farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire, has since received a letter informing her there would be no enforcing of the warrant to destroy her beloved pet before 5pm.
She believed the department did not know what to do, and didn’t want to kill Geronimo.
“And they expect me to put down my own animal,” she said.
“I’m supposed to arrange his euthanasia and then say that the body will be available from 'X' time so they can come and collect it.
“Well I’m just not going to do that.
“They want me to kill him. They want to say that I consented, and they don’t want his blood on their hands.”
The Gloucestershire woman said the Defra staffers were “trying to break [her] down” with extensions and “faffing around”.
“They’ve done it before, I got bullied and threatened and all sorts in 2017. In a two-month period he survived seven attempts to come and kill him,” she said.
Asked if officials could break in, she added: “The police will let them in, they have a warrant on access.
“If I kill him, I’ll need to agree to kill him with my vet. But my vet won’t come as he’s worried about his own safety. How is it possible to kill a healthy animal in this environment?”
This was “another mental hoop” Defra was putting her through, she said.
She was under the impression that if the government team didn’t receive her confirmation that she would do the deed herself, they might come to her property, break in, and carry out the warrant.
But she claimed the team at Defra had not been communicating with her and did not expect to receive any notice before they “just [turned] up”.
“And they’ll probably come at some unreasonable time because they can,” she added.
On Ms Macdonald’s farm it was business as usual for her, with the addition of volunteers standing close-by on watch.
The gated entrance to the farm was blocked off by cars early this morning.
Geronimo had been quietly strolling around, with the rest of his alpaca pack seen mingling 200 metres away in a nearby pen.
Ms Macdonald refuses to give in to the pressure being applied by Defra, and is still confident of saving Geronimo’s life.
“The world knows that they don’t have the suspicion of disease,” she said.
“And I still believe that something will happen that will stop this and he [Geronimo] can stay here in isolation like he has done for four years.”
“That is in the legislation, that is Eustice’s call. And there’s absolutely no reason why he can’t make that.”
Defra was “torturing” her, she claimed, in order to set an example to everyone else. She said each time the department was challenged, they locked down the legislation a little more.
But Ms Macdonald said Defra’s Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer had issued similar warnings to her back in 2018, to no result.
“He told me that while in Defra, when I was there,” she said. “And now he’s in Australia as the Chief Veterinary Officer for Victoria. That’s the kind of level of abuse that you get from these people.”
Helen has received an outpouring of support from the members of the public who oppose plans to kill Geronimo.
More than 130,000 people have signed a petition calling on Boris Johnson to halt the killing.
Around 30 people - including fellow alpaca farmers who had lost animals in similar circumstances - gathered outside Defra's headquarters earlier this month in Smith Square, Westminster.
Protesters also marched past the Houses of Parliament to the gates of Downing Street on Whitehall, some carrying banners reading "We stand with Geronimo" and "Eustice, admit you're wrong."
The campaigners believed that Geronimo was free of TB and that Defra's tests are highly likely to be inaccurate, and demanded a different type of test be used to prove the alpaca’s disease status before his slaughter.
But Downing Street insisted that all the evidence on the animal's condition had been "looked at very carefully."
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We know how distressing losing animals to TB is for anyone. That is why the Environment Secretary has looked at this extremely carefully and interrogated all the evidence.
"The fact remains that Geronimo has sadly tested positive twice using a highly specific and reliable and validated test.”
