Geronimo’s RVN owner still waiting for ‘closure’ three years on

The owner of an alpaca that was euthanised amid a bitter row over its alleged bTB status has urged the new Labour government to intervene in the case.

RVN Helen Macdonald has appealed for action from Defra ministers to end what she sees as officials’ “abuse of power” against her in connection with Geronimo’s death three years ago.

The department has not responded directly to the call, but insisted that it acts “quickly to limit the risk” of disease transmission.

But Ms Macdonald said continuing restrictions on her Gloucestershire farm following Geronimo’s euthanasia meant there had been “no closure for us as a family or a community”.

Urgent talks

Ms Macdonald has asked for urgent talks with both the farming minister, Daniel Zeichner, and secretary of state Steve Reed, who she said could lift the movement restrictions on her flock of alpacas “immediately”.

She added: “There must be an immediate end to the abuse that we are still suffering unjustifiably.”

Geronimo made worldwide headlines in the late summer of 2021 when a legal battle to save him, which stretched back four years, ultimately failed, amid criticism by several senior vets of Defra’s handling of the case.

Although department scientists later admitted they could not culture bacteria from tissue samples taken at the time of his postmortem examination, meaning they could not definitively demonstrate he had bTB, they also maintained that didn’t mean he was disease-free either.

Crucial questions

But Ms Macdonald said several crucial questions – on issues including the use of the tests deployed in his case, the manner of his removal from her farm and subsequent euthanasia, and the imposition of testing requirements that she believes contradict the department’s own guidelines – have still yet to be addressed.

She said the continuing movement restrictions on her farm had left her unable to trade, adding: “It feels like a direct abuse of power. How can the Government behave like this towards its farmers?

“These are unjustifiable and unreasonable acts of cruelty. Lessons must be learned and those responsible for causing so much distress to so many must be fully held to account.”

Sympathies

A Defra spokesperson said: “Our sympathies remain with all those with animals affected by this terrible disease, which devastates farmers’ livelihoods.

“It is important to remember that infected animals can spread the disease to both animals and people before displaying clinical signs, which is why we take action quickly to limit the risk of the disease spreading.”

While campaigning for a “Geronimo’s Law” supporting “transparent, fair and evidence-based science for all species” continues, his specific case remains the subject of an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) into multiple complaints of maladministration.

Some of the allegations in the case are said to date back to August 2021, before Geronimo was euthanised.

‘Objective evidence’

Defra insisted it had “worked constructively to provide objective evidence” to the investigation and would “await the findings” of its final report.

But Ms Macdonald claimed the department had not offered “any credible defence” of its actions and accused it of refusing to engage with mediators provided by the PHSO.