Down on Macdonald’s Gloucestershire farm, the alpaca that tested positive for bovine TV is safe with activists. As for Defra, it’s as if it had taken out a contract on Bambi …
For more than a century, the name Geronimo belonged to a leader of the Apache people in New Mexico who was held as a prisoner of war and subject to public exhibition. But in recent weeks the name has had to share ownership with an alpaca from New Zealand who is a prisoner on a south Gloucestershire farm amid a conflict with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and, via a live webcam feed, on display to the world.
Geronimo the alpaca is under a death sentence, having tested positive four years ago in a bovine tuberculosis test that his owner, Helen Macdonald insists was unreliable. After a lengthy legal battle, a high court warrant came into effect 10 days ago that gave Defra 30 days to slaughter the alpaca.
