Every time she hears a car or lorry trundling down the lane to her farmhouse Helen Macdonald flinches, wondering if the government has come for Geronimo the alpaca.
“It’s torture,” she said. “I’m in a horrible limbo waiting for them to arrive and kill him. I feel like I am being punished. It’s a tug of war. They want him dead and off their desk. I’ve been told they could come for him at any reasonable time – whatever that means – in the next three weeks. I watch the gate, I start when I hear a car coming along. I feel under enormous pressure.”
Geronimo is under orders to be killed because he tested positive for bovine tuberculosis four years ago. Macdonald argues that the testing is flawed and that the eight-year-old alpaca is perfectly healthy. She and her tens of thousands of supporters, a few of whom have set up a “human shield” around Geronimo at her farm in South Gloucestershire, are calling for another test to be carried out.
“They don’t want anyone to know he’s healthy. They won’t test him because they know he will be negative,” said Macdonald. “I feel the government is being cruel to Geronimo and to me. I would expect the prime minister to step in.”
Geronimo’s case has attracted the attention of the British press – the Daily Mail and Sun are keeping vigil at the farmhouse – but the international media has also started to take note.
“I’ve just come off the phone with the New York Times,” said Macdonald, 50, a veterinary nurse, who keeps 80 alpacas. “Most of the world seems to know that the UK government wants to kill a healthy animal.”
On Wednesday a webcam, dubbed GMTV and sited next to Geronimo’s enclosure, went live so that the world, if it wishes, can keep an eye on Geronimo. He spent the day trundling around his enclosure, occasionally sitting down in the middle of it, visited from time to time by a magpie.
Macdonald said the presence of the camera meant that if officials came to take Geronimo away or slaughter him at the farm, they would be watched. “They won’t be able to sneak in here. The eyes of the world will be watching.”
Unfortunately for Macdonald the opposition has not backed her. Labour’s leader, Sir Keir Starmer, had no words of comfort, telling BBC Points West: “It’s a very, very, sad situation and you can see why emotions are running high. But sadly I think there is no alternative and you have to remember that farmers in Gloucestershire and across the country lose animals to TB the whole time.”
Macdonald said she would not break the law to protect Geronimo when the officials turned up. “I’m not a criminal, though I feel like I’m being treated like one. I’m just a normal person wanting the government to do the right thing. I don’t think that is too much to ask.”
She said the government was in a hole, but that there was a way out of it. “They could order that Geronimo be kept in isolation and study him, take blood samples every three months. There is a learning opportunity here.”
The government is not for budging. A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said on Tuesday: “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.
“Therefore, while nobody wants to cull infected animals, we need to do everything we can to tackle this disease to stop it spreading and to protect the livelihoods of those affected.”
Geronimo lives with six other alpacas on the farm, none of whom have fallen ill. He looks hale and hearty.
“He’s a bit fat, if anything,” said Macdonald. “My vet gives him ultrasounds every three months. There’s nothing, he doesn’t even have worms. If he had TB four years ago he’d be ill or dead by now.”
Macdonald can call Geronimo over, which she has had to do frequently in recent days at the behest of news photographers and camera crews. “He knows his name. I think alpacas are a bit like cats. They do things on their own terms. I love him. I love all my animals. He’s not done anything wrong, he doesn’t deserve this.”
