Geronimo postmortem results negative for TB, say owner’s lawyers
Defra denies claim and says culled animal has ‘TB-like lesions’ and awaits further investigations
A fresh row has broken out between the owner of Geronimo the alpaca and the government over the results of an initial postmortem examination of the culled animal.
Lawyers acting for Helen Macdonald have said the preliminary gross postmortem findings, reviewed by veterinary surgeons, are negative for visible lesions typical of bovine tuberculosis (TB).
However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said a number of TB-like lesions were found in Geronimo and will be further investigated, adding the full postmortem results will not be concluded until the end of the year.
The dispute is the latest in a long line of battles between Macdonald and the government over the fate of Geronimo, who was put down last week.
The eight-year-old animal, who had tested positive twice for bovine TB and whose fate triggered heated debate across the country, was taken from his home at Shepherds Close Farm in south Gloucestershire on 31 August and later put down.
Lawyers acting for Macdonald, a veterinary nurse, said she had received a letter from the government’s legal department containing the preliminary findings of the postmortem. These findings were reviewed by veterinary surgeons.
In a statement, the lawyers said: “As reviewed by Dr Iain McGill and Dr Bob Broadbent, the preliminary gross postmortem findings are negative for visible lesions typical of bovine tuberculosis.
“For clarity there are no white or cream caseous, enlarged abscesses typical for bTB in alpacas whether in the lungs, bronchial, mediastinal or retropharyngeal lymph nodes.”
Macdonald has formally requested the full findings of the postmortem report and the results of further tests on tissue samples, blood, serum or plasma taken from Geronimo, and other additional test results.
Defra appeared to directly contradict the claims. The chief veterinary officer, Dr Christine Middlemiss, said: “We have completed the initial postmortem examination of Geronimo. A number of TB-like lesions were found and in line with standard practice, these are now undergoing further investigation.
“These tests include the developing of bacteriological cultures from tissue samples which usually takes several months – we would expect to complete the full postmortem and culture process by the end of the year.”
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; he could see some of the other 80-odd alpacas on the farm but 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.
On the day of the Defra demo in support of Geronimo and opposing the badger cull because of bovine TB; we are just hearing that from the post mortem on Geronimo, he DID NOT HAVE bTB.
This throws a total new light on the whole issue now.
Source SAFE (Save Animals from Exploitation) Campaign “The Dark Side of the New Zealand Dairy Industry”
If animal farmers and industry executives weren’t so grossly deceptive, violent, and cowardly, they would just be embarrassing: people often attempt to validate abusing animals as being “intellectually superior” humans; the same people then claim thathumans are incapable of telling the difference between plant milks and cows’ milk.
And their cruel rhetoric also includes the belief that killing can be humane, that harming an animal is better for an animal than not harming an animal.
Intellectual superiority? No. Just entitled, privileged human supremacy.
WAV Comment – I want to touch on this ‘superiority’ issue here with the video to Oxford Uni by Dr Brain May – ‘Queen’ guitarist and doctor of astrophysics – see the video at or watch it below:
Too, the USDA has included soy milk as a nutritionally-equivalent, healthy dairy alternative (for the plant activists, soy is predominantly grown for animals, who humans eat, a unarguably inefficient and immoral use of resources and lives), and that in the USA, most cows’ milk is fortified, meaning vitamin is added, it is NOT naturally present. Nevertheless, I am personally unconcerned with the nutrition provided by plant milks because it is for certain 100% healthier for the animals to not use and kill them. As such, why would ANYONE choose suffering over not suffering? More than 500,000 calves and greater than 3 million of their mothers are butchered yearly, just in the USA, so that a different species, beyond infancy and with teeth, can drink the calves’ naturally- and biologically-intended milk instead. That’s an ethical fail, not a demonstration of decency. Or intellect. SL
On August 11, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Miyoko’s Creamery in its lawsuit against the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), upholding the company’s First Amendment right to use terms like butter and cheese in marketing its vegan products.
Based in Sonoma County, California, Miyoko’s Creamery produces artisanal vegan alternatives to traditional dairy products. In just over five years, its popularity has exploded with distribution in Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and other major supermarket chains.
The company is known for its popular vegan butter made from cashews, coconut oil, and sunflower oil, as well as other high-end alternative products like vegan mozzarella, cream cheese, and cheese wheels—all of which I can attest are very good.
Last year, the company received a threatening letter from the CDFA demanding it alter its marketing in the state. Although its labels clearly read “cultured vegan butter,” the department requested the creamery stop using dairy-related terms on its packaging altogether, claiming Miyoko’s marketing was in violation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s labeling regulations.
California ordered the company to remove the terms butter and cheese and cease to refer to its products as “lactose-free,” “hormone-free,” or “cruelty-free.” Instead, the state suggested that Miyoko market its vegan butter as oh-so-appetizing “cashew cream fermented from live cultures.” To do so would require an inordinate investment to produce custom packaging for sale of the product in California.
The letter doubled down by also ordering the company to scrap its mission statement, “Revolutionizing Dairy with Plants,” and to remove an image of a woman hugging a cow from its website. The photo in question is that of a volunteer at a nonprofit refuge for farm animals, Rancho Compasión, which was started by the creamery’s founder Miyoko Schinner.
No Animal Left Behind: Why every animal deserves protection and care
6 September 2021
News
Today, we are releasing our last demand as part of our campaign “No Animal Left Behind” focusing on the billions of animals left unprotected by our current EU legislation:
Fish, turkeys, dairy and beef cattle, sheep and goats, ducks and geese, quails and farmed rabbits… the list seems endless. The review of our animal welfare laws is long overdue, and we need to make sure that this time, no animal is left behind in the process.
Europe’s animal welfare laws were introduced piece by piece over the last 40 years, but they are rarely enforced correctly, and there are serious gaps that leave billions of animals unprotected. In the context of our campaign “No Animal Left Behind”, we are calling on the European Commission to make sure a full-scale review of the legislation takes place, that our demands for the best possible welfare standards are heard, and that no animal is left behind.
In the EU, over 90% of turkeys are reared in overcrowded, intensive, indoor farms that cause numerous welfare issues. When these birds are packed together in large numbers with no enrichment, they quickly become stressed and bored. As a result, they start to feather peck, pulling out feathers on each other, which quickly leads to cannibalism. Farmers try to stop this by keeping the turkeys in low light, and by trimming their beaks. The pain from beak trimming causes further suffering and is performed without anaesthesia. The continuous low light also causes eye problems, such as blindness. Turkeys are also bred to grow very fast, and they do so at a rate that causes high incidences of lameness and heart failure. Turkeys do not need to be farmed like this.
Over a billion fish are being farmed in the EU at any one time. These are undomesticated animals being raised in often intensive systems without a basic understanding of their needs, and commonly without implementing the best practices and knowledge generated especially in the last decade. Aquaculture production systems are typically barren environments and always involve a range of stressful and harmful practices including crowding and handling. There is little transparency on the welfare outcomes, but in the few cases where mortalities are reported we see mortality rates of 15% to 20%. The humane slaughter equipment developed for the sector has been adopted by only a few sectors and producers, and typically farmed fish today are being asphyxiated slowly to death. Aquatic invertebrates including decapod crustaceans are also finding themselves without protection, notably in terms of their live transport and slaughter.
The more we discover about animals and their complex, intriguing lives, the more shocked we should be at how we have treated them in the past. And the more determined we should be to ensure they live a good life. Our laws need to do more than protect the welfare of all farmed animals. They should promote health, wellbeing and compassion. Because animals deserve no less. Let’s leave none behind.
Little changes – In this video, Filmed on Wednesday 27th March 2013, Dr Brian May, ex ‘Queen’ guitarist and Doctor of Astrophysics, talks at Oxford University about the UK government badger cull and why it must be abandoned. All these years later, still nothing changes.
Brian May talks about the UK government badger cull and why it must be abandoned.
Brian May begins by saying that his talk was supposed to be a debate on the culling of Badgers in the UK. The opposition, lead by Owen Paterson (A Conservative MP who is Secretary of State for Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs), didn’t show up highlighting that his argument for the killing of Badgers does not hold any ground.
Bovine TB is a disease typically endemic to cows and can spread to any lactating mammal. The strain of the virus that has been passed on to Badgers cannot easily infect humans, it’s typically a respiratory disease however in it’s advanced form it can cause legions and is a terrible way for the animal to die. The witch-hunt against badgers started when a single badger was found in 1971 to be ill and dying and from that people blamed all the badgers for the spread of TB among cattle.
This is where the stigma placed on Badgers was founded; however the badger that was found was never tested for the disease so there is no evidence for all this blame. The government plans to kills thousands of badgers this summer in West Gloucestershire, Somerset and part of Dorset. There is a skin test on cows to show TB and in one case the skin test has failed 5 times over and the disease was only discovered in the cow at the abattoir.
Over 40% of Bovine TB casesare discovered in the abattoir. It is argued that the badger cull will have an adverse affect on the spread of TB.
The issue of vaccinating cows has not been addressed. A scientific study was undertaken on badgers that were seemingly killed by the roadside and 80% of them were discovered to have died somewhere else and conveniently placed there. Brian concludes that the vaccination of cattle is the only way to go.
He uses the ban on fox hunting as an example of how the media subliminally sways public opinion in their favour but suddenly coming out with stories of foxes biting and attacking people.
Filmed on Wednesday 27th March 2013 ABOUT BRIAN MAY: Brian May, musician and astrophysicist, is most widely known as the guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer of the rock band Queen. He was appointed a CBE in 2005 for services to the music industry and for his charity work. He earned a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College in 2007 and is currently serving as the 4th Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. Planet Rock voted May the 7th greatest guitarist of all time, and he was ranked at No. 26 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 2012, May was ranked the 2nd greatest guitarist of all time by a Guitar World magazine readers poll.
ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY: The Union is the world’s most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. It has been established for 189 years, aiming to promote debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.
Regards Mark
Dr Bri plays guitar with Robert Plant (ex Led Zeppelin) at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert – London.
Germany again! Place names: Düdenbüttel / Stade in Lower Saxony
This time no cattle are tortured, but a pig is buried alive.
Passers-by discover live pigs among a pile of dead animals.
People like to accuse us of informing the authorities too late and practicing vigilante justice.
Therefore: 5 minutes after receipt of the video of the courageous passers-by, SOKO Animal Welfare Associationcalls the Stade police,10 minutes later the written criminal complaint was issued.
Police Stade just doesn’t do anything!
It was a terrible sight.
Dead pigs pile up in the blazing sun in front of the door of a pig fattening facility.
Birds peck the eyes out of the animals. Some of the carcasses are heavily decayed, one animal is apparently alive, the movements of the animal between the dead conspecifics can be clearly seen. The second case of this kind in Lower Saxony is in a few days.
This is a particularly disgusting violation of the Animal Welfare Act. What could be worse than being buried alive?
We immediately filed a criminal complaint against the fattener with thousands of animals for violating §17 TschG. The Stade police announced that they would send a police car immediately (!!)
Unfortunately, when asked by the police, SOKO Animal Welfarehad to find out that no police officers had gone out to help the poor pig, no pig was rescued and the evidence must have been destroyed in the meantime at the carcass disposal.
Update: In the meantime the police have corrected their original statement from this morning and announced that a police car was on site.
However, one could not have met the owner of the facility, nor could a living animal have been found in the numerous dead pigs.
In addition, the police could not find our ad either (!!)
(Of course we have the confirmation of receipt)
The fattening facility has a history: The monster barn with over 5000 pigs was even illegally built. Animals have been illegally kept there for years since 2013, and operated illegally..
In the slaughterhouse in Düdenbüttel near Stade, illegally ill and injured cattle were systematically slaughtered and the meat traded across the EU.
The company’s animal transporters dragged the animals brutally and with full consciousness into the vehicles using a winch.
This failure of the authorities shows once again why the direct intervention of animal rights activists is necessary, because the police cannot be relied on for animal welfare.
The sad thing: if the animal rights activists had acted directly, they would now be on the run from the police.
And I mean…New, terrible news every few days … and again this ignorant, this good-for-nothing, the German authorities…
They are not even ashamed to pretend that they allegedly did not find the criminal complaint ?????
A shame!
The German Animal Welfare Act is not even worth the paper it is on.
This is a banana republic here. Of course, they couldn’t find the living animal, it was finally dead or an employee quickly brought it around the corner.
Germany … Why are we actually paying taxes for a civil servant apparatus that no longer works?
Why do we pay the corrupt official veterinarians when they are usually on the payroll of the animal exploiters who monitor them or, more precisely, to whom they sign that everything is great?
Many thanks to SOKO animal rights activists, they do the worst job for all of us.
WAV Comment – we communicate all the time with Erika, a founder of AAU. Hopefully, we think she knows we respect and admire all the work and rescues which are undertaken by the AAU crew.
So here are a few videos of some latest rescues, as well as one where you can join the street treatment team as they go about their fantastic work. Love and respect to all at AAU.
Regards Mark
Dear Mark,
Earlier this month India celebrated Rakhi, honoring the bond between brothers and sisters, whether blood family, or chosen family.
Nanhi, featured in the little videohere,has a “chosen family” too. Her neighbor feeds her, loves her, and makes sure if she is ill, she will get the help she needs. Because Nanhi gets plenty of petting, she was relaxed during the treatments she needed in Animal Aid after a painful ear wound. When animals are calm and secure, they also heal much faster.
For all for loving care you have made possible to those far from you in Animal Aid, thank you.
At first, Micky was afraid to be touched. Then everything changed!
Little Micky’s wound on his backside was large and extremely painful. Still energetic and optimistic, this precious boy seemed to have no idea that he was in grave danger and would have died without urgent rescue. His mother’s love would be a vital comfort to him, so of course we rescued them together, and his Mom’s face, within moments, seemed to express relief that they were now in safe, healing hands.
Watch now, as Micky’s fear turned into love.
Helping someone who is hurting feels so good. Please donate.
Join our Street Treatment team for the day!
Join us on the road as our Street Treatment medical team makes their daily rounds in the neighborhoods of Udaipur, Rajasthan, India!
You’ll see how much good medical care can be administered while sparing an animal the stress of entering the hospital, avoiding contact with infectious diseases and staying close to their friends and families. This video might also be especially interesting for those who don’t live in Udaipur to get a glimpse of the neighborhoods we work in.So hop on in and join us for a fascinating few minutes of loving care.
Sammy needed urgent help for his eye, and Animal Aid needed Sammy!
Few injuries are more horrible to imagine than a ruptured eye. The injury was likely caused by a passing vehicle hitting his head from behind. Exhausted from the pain, he put up no resistance to being rescued.
His eye could not be saved and needed to be surgically removed. Sammy woke from the procedure seeming to be immediately relieved, but only then did we realize, Sammy was blind in the other eye.
We’ve welcomed him to live for the rest of his life in the happy sanctuary of Animal Aid. What a snugglebug he has become, and we hope you’ll join us in falling in love with Sammy.
Geronimo Is Hauled Away for Destruction Under a Government Policy.
OPINION – by Mark; Co Founder WAV.
Before we start – A new petition has been established, calling for the resignation of George Eustace MP; Defra Minster. This follows on from the murder of Geronimo on 31/8.
You will receive a response and need to click to verify your e mail; otherwise your sig. will not count.
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I live in the South East of England. But today, 31/8/21 has been a bit of a turning point in the British animal rights movement. Today, being the day that ‘Geronimo’ the Alpaca was murdered by the British government as they considered that he was infected with bovine TB. (bTB).
His solitary death, which did not take place where he was kept, and after a lot of ‘rough man handling’ by well disguised, face mask wearing (obviously avoiding identification), protective coverall wearing Defra officials; is yet one more pointless death in the name of Bovine Tuberculosis. Did we see all the campaigners out to fight the destruction of Geronimo wearing protective clothing and hidden behind face masks ? – no; there is no need now; Defra are in effect just attempting to hide their faces, with the support of police protection, from identification by the animal welfare supporters of Geronimo who have battled in his defence..
There is talk today, 1/9, that Geronimo was taken away in a horsebox, so that he could be destroyed, and then immediately taken away for cremation. This flies in opposition to the autopsy which is supposed to be being undertaken, but without any outside observers – see further on for more.
For years now we in the (animal welfare) movement have had to sit and watch as tens of thousands of badgers have, just like Geronimo the Alpaca toady, been slaughtered by a fanatical; one faced government that basically ignores all evidence and statistics. The mass murder of a ‘protected species’ named the ‘badger’; is an issue which is very hard to swallow for the tens of thousands who spoke and campaigned in Geronimo’s defence, as well as those who still speak in defence of badgers.
For the record to put some figures on the table; unconfirmed reports, but those obtained by the ‘League Against Cruel Sports – LACS’; suggest that in the 2018 autumn alone, 32,000 ‘protected’ badgers were slaughtered by the government, operating under the command of Defra; Minister George Eustace MP.
Miss Macdonald, Geronimo’s dedicated owner, had received support from around the world, with more than 140,000 people signing a petition calling against Geronimo’s destruction. In the UK, any petition, regardless of the subject, containing more than 100,000 signatures should be debated in the House of Commons; where MP’s take residence.
Miss Macdonald insisted the Enferplex test; allegedly showing Geronimo did have bTB, was flawed and that Geronimo twice tested positive because he had repeatedly been primed, yes primed, with tuberculin – a sterile liquid containing the growth products of or specific substances extracted from the tubercle bacillus and used in the diagnosis of tuberculosis in bovine TB.
‘All the time they were simply planning to murder him’: Geronimo’s devastated owner blasts DEFRA and demands a witness at alpaca’s post-mortem after he was dragged away from her farm under police escort and executed
Geronimo the alpaca has been executed after Defra officials today seized the animal and drove him away
Police clashed with animal rights protesters defending the alpaca at the farm in Wickwar this morning
The High Court ruled Geronimo must be destroyed for testing positive for bovine tuberculosis twice
But its owner Helen Macdonald has long insisted that the Enferplex test used on the alpaca is flawed
Geronimo the alpaca’s devastated owner has slammed Defra’s ‘bad faith and duplicity’ and demanded an independent witness be present at his post-mortem after he was today seized from his Gloucestershire farm by a Government team in boiler suits and masks and executed.
Helen Macdonald, a veterinary nurse who brought Geronimo to England from New Zealand in 2017, accused Environment Secretary George Eustice and other senior Defra officials of ignoring her pleas for ‘constructive dialogue’ for two weeks.
The four-year battle to save Geronimo after he twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis ended this morning and the sad moment he was tied up and carted away was captured by the live webcam set up to watch the South American mammal a month ago.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed around an hour later they had put the animal down, just days before the destruction warrant it won at the High Court expired.
A post-mortem will be undertaken by veterinary pathologists from the from the premises and euthanised by staff from the Animal. Defra said this will be followed by a bacteriological culture of selected tissue samples, which can take up to three months.
Speaking at her farm in Wickwar, Miss Macdonald said: ‘All the time they were simply planning to murder Geronimo. This is yet another appalling demonstration of bad faith and duplicity by the Secretary of State and everyone at Defra.’
She added that she is ‘absolutely disgusted’ with the Government, which she said had used a ‘falsified test that has no validity’ on the alpaca.
Police clashed with protesters defending the alpaca at the farm this morning as more than 30 uniformed officers and Defra officials tied a rope around Geronimo before dragging him to a trailer and driving him away for destruction.
‘This morning, Geronimo has been manhandled out of my farm,’ Miss Macdonald said. Asked how force was used, she replied: ‘You’ll have to ask the poor witnesses that witnessed him being rounded up and dragged into a horsebox. These are barbaric actions of unscientific, abusive people in Government.’
She called for Mr Eustace and Lord Benyon, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defra, to go to the farm to speak to her, as well as an independent witness to be present when a post-mortem examination is carried out on the alpaca.
Uniformed officers wearing facemasks could be seen speaking to three people dressed in blue overalls and goggles outside the farm in Wickwar at 10.45am and tying a rope around Geronimo
‘Over the last two weeks we have tried to engage constructively and persistently with George Eustice, Lord Benyon, George Eustice’s special advisors, senior Defra civil servants and multiple MPs and government scientists,’ she said. ‘Now we know they were not only ignoring our persistent pleas for constructive dialogue, but had no intention of engaging with us.’
Defra said the alpaca was euthanised by staff from the Animal and Plant Health Agency in order to control the spread of TB. Miss Macdonald insists his positive tests were false. A Defra spokesman confirmed that Geronimo has never tested negative for bovine TB, and that another test for the disease will be conducted during the post-mortem.
Webcam footage showed Geronimo make a break for freedom from his ‘captors’ and run into a field with other alpacas. Its supporters – the ‘Alpaca Angels’, who have kept watch over the stud – previously vowed to thwart the executioners by using deploy (think that should be ‘decoy’ – WAV) alpacas.
Geronimo has been in isolation, but four similar-looking alpacas are in an adjacent field with an open gate in between. Today, several officials followed the alpaca carrying rope and chased the pack around the meadow. Geronimo was then lead back into his barn before he was taken into a horsebox and driven away under police escort.
Supporters had been camping out at the farm to try to prevent officials arriving to destroy Geronimo and some were seen talking to police as the animal was removed. One woman was arrested after spraying officers with a water pistol, but was quickly de-arrested. Others sobbed after Geronimo was rounded up and driven away, and accused Defra of breaking the law.
Miss Macdonald, who previously vowed to stand in front of a marksman to protect him, was nowhere to be seen as the alpaca was taken away.
She claimed she had been ‘duped’ by the Government and had expected Defra vets to give Geronimo a stay of execution. But when police arrived, Miss Macdonald said she had no choice but to leave as she ‘would have been arrested for obstruction’. She also claimed that Defra ‘will try and fudge the post-mortem’, calling it a ‘complete set-up’.
Miss Macdonald insists the Enferplex test is flawed and says Geronimo twice tested positive because he had repeatedly been primed with tuberculin – a purified protein derivative of bovine TB bacteria. She has received support from around the world, with more than 140,000 people signing a petition against Geronimo’s destruction.
Earlier this month, a High Court judge refused her lawyer’s application for a temporary injunction to stop the destruction order and reopen the case.
As well as alpacas, badgers have been a victim of the fight against bovine TB, with mass culling employed to stop the spread since 2013, sparking a huge public backlash. The Government said 27,000 cattle were slaughtered in 2020 to curb the spread of the disease.
Pen Farthing’s friend Dominic Dyer, an animal rights campaigner, tweeted: ‘My thoughts are with Helen Macdonald one of the most bravest & courageous people I know that fought a David & Goliath battle with Defra to save the life of her precious Geronimo’.
Downing Street has expressed sympathy for Miss Macdonald, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman saying: ‘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.’
In a statement, Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss said: ‘This is a terribly sad situation and our sympathies remain with all 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.’
The destruction warrant was valid until Saturday, September 4 and Miss Macdonald had previously called on Environment Secretary George Eustice to allow Geronimo to be tested for a third time or let him live to aid research into the disease.
One supporter named Ray Puttock said despite the tragic news, the Geronimo saga has brought many supporters together. He said: ‘We’ve all become very good friends here. People here weren’t my friends when they turned up, now they’ll always be my friends.’
On the heavy police presence, he said: ”I tried coming in two different ways and got stopped at both. I saw five cars and three police motorbikes. That’s without the vehicles that were here.
‘It would be very interesting to ask the Avon and Somerset control room today ‘how grade one many grade one blue shouts were you unable to attend because of all the officers that were at the alpacas?’
‘They are assisting the state, they are not assisting the people, the community they’re supposed to serve. Just disgraceful.’
An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said: ‘We can confirm officers are in attendance at a farm in the Wickwar area of South Gloucestershire this morning to support the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), who are executing a court warrant.
‘We’ll always support our partner agencies to carry out their lawful duties and our role is to prevent a breach of the peace and to ensure public safety is protected.’
A Defra spokesman refused to comment on ‘operational matters’ when approached by MailOnline, but said in a statement: ‘We are sympathetic to Ms Macdonald’s situation – just as we are with everyone with animals affected by this terrible disease.
‘It is for this reason that the testing results and options for Geronimo have been very carefully considered by Defra, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and its veterinary experts, as well as passing several stages of thorough legal scrutiny.
‘Bovine tuberculosis is one of the greatest animal health threats we face today and causes devastation and distress for farming families and rural communities across the country while costing the taxpayer around £100million every year.
‘Therefore, while nobody wants to cull animals, we need to do everything we can to tackle this disease, stop it spreading and to protect the livelihoods of those affected.’
Miss Macdonald said: ‘I fled, if I had stayed there they would have arrested me for obstruction. That would have played into their hands because I wouldn’t have been able to keep fighting for him. They took him alive – we’ve been totally duped. It’s an outrage.’
‘We don’t know where they’ve taken him but there are still a few hours to try to save his life. We have got to get this stopped.’
She sent a text message to reporters at the farm which said: ‘They took him alive, get after Defra’. Her Twitter account @alpacapower posted: ‘DEFRA have arrived! We are asking once again for an urgent meeting with George Eustice. Please don’t execute Geronimo.’
Campaigner Graham Edwards, 54, said: ‘They have broken their own laws and protocols – if the animal has TB they are not allowed to move it. It should have been slaughtered here but they wouldn’t do it because there are cameras here to record everything that happened.’
Mr Edwards, from Reading, has spent two weeks camping at the farm, said: ‘They came mob-handed – there were more than 30 police here. They pushed through a fence, they came to do a job and there was no stopping them. I was told the vets were Spanish – not even English.
‘It was supposed to have been put down here, not taken away. We didn’t expect them to take it away. They are a bunch of hypocrites – I’m gutted, we all are.’
More than a dozen leading vets called on the Government to halt the culling of Geronimo after questioning his tuberculosis diagnosis, and instead urged the animal to be studied for science.
The 13 vets – who include a former senior official at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – said they had ‘grave reservations’ about the two positive tests the animal returned in 2017 and they ‘may well represent a false positive’.
Among the signatories to the letter are Professor Ranald Munroe, former head of pathology for Defra’s Veterinary Laboratories Agency and Dr Iain McGill, veterinary scientific adviser to Ms Macdonald.
In the letter, they write: ‘It is our professional opinion that the diagnosis in Geronimo’s case is unsafe, and may well represent a false positive, due to the fact that Geronimo had been repeatedly ‘antibody boosted’ or primed – five times in his lifetime with four injections of bovine tuberculin and one of avian tuberculin in the run up to the final Enferplex blood test which confirmed the ‘positive’ diagnosis of ‘suspicion of disease’.’
They said Mr Eustice had the power to overturn Geronimo’s destruction warrant and order he be observed for scientific research.
‘We could learn a great deal from Geronimo were he to be compassionately studied, but very little from his death,’ they said.
‘We believe Geronimo’s case shines a light on the shortcomings of the current bTB testing policy, and gives an opportunity for a comprehensive review of the bovine TB testing and control policy, based on science and for the health and wellbeing of farmers, cattle, alpacas, badgers, the environment and the public.
‘Given the mental anguish that Helen MacDonald has had to endure these past four years, and the publicity surrounding the case, we would urge Secretary of State for Defra, George Eustice and his team to discuss matters with us and Ms MacDonald to find a way out of this impasse.’
Miss Macdonald had called for an urgent meeting with the Government, pleading: ‘We are requesting an urgent meeting with Environment Secretary George Eustice, and really hope to hear back from Defra.
‘It is naturally a terribly traumatic time for Geronimo and myself, and everyone else who has been supporting us over the last few weeks. But we remain confident that there are ways forward to save Geronimo, and that Defra will find a way to do the right thing.’
Last week, more than a dozen vets said they have ‘grave reservations’ about the two positive tests the eight-year-old animal returned in 2017 and that they ‘may well represent a false positive’.
Earlier this month, a High Court judge refused her lawyer’s application for a temporary injunction to stop the destruction order and reopen the case.
Miss Macdonald said that when Defra officials do attend her farm to euthanise Geronimo, she would not break the law.
Supporters have also been camping out at her farm in case officials arrive to destroy him. They have been receiving regular deliveries of supplies from well-wishers, including tea bags, coffee, sugar, and vegan food.
As well as alpacas, badgers have been a victim of the fight against bovine TB, with mass culling employed to stop the spread since 2013, sparking a huge public backlash.
The Government insists that all the evidence on the animal’s condition has been ‘looked at very carefully’.
World Animals Voice 