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The owner of an alpaca due to be put down this week after a four-year legal battle ended in the High Court last night called on the Prime Minister to intervene.
Helen Macdonald has spent £100,000 in legal costs and lost her alpaca business a further £80,000 in her bid to save just one of her 75-strong herd.
Geronimo, eight, was effectively put on death row in 2017 when he tested positive for bovine tuberculosis after being imported from New Zealand.
Miss Macdonald, 50, argued the result was a false positive caused by Geronimo being injected with tuberculin for skin tests.
Describing herself as ‘upset and ragingly angry’ after the High Court ruling in favour of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last Thursday, the registered veterinary nurse said: ‘I am calling on Boris Johnson to personally intervene and ask [Defra Secretary of State] George Eustice to sit down with experts and make this right.’
In the meantime, Geronimo – who won competitions for his jet black coat in New Zealand and is worth £15,000 – has been kept in isolation at her farm in Wickwar, south Gloucestershire.
Helen Macdonald (pictured with Geronimo) has spent £100,000 in legal costs and lost
