Geronimo

I understand that some farmers though that there wasn't any reason to destroy him. I'm thinking that he was killed to save face.

Oldwoman70 For pets, breeding or otherwise I don’t think animals should be transported via planes/ships/trains/trucks unless absolutely necessary.
I do try to make sure my own food is local too , I eat British meat and dairy where possible from the supermarket and local farms. It isn’t perfect, and I'm unlikely to become vegetarian at my age, but I don’t think that animal should have been imported.
That poor animal went from a hot and sub tropical NZ climate to a cool one, a long international flight and quarantine then euthanised after a frightened struggle.

The animal rights people, although well meaning, were the reason that this poor creature had to be removed to be put down. The noise and the general commotion caused a lot of stress and fear for Geronimo. They obviously are oblivious to animal stress levels, or simply don't know anything about animals per se! My sister in law, as a little girl, had TB in her leg bone, caused by unpasteurised milk. She survived but was very poorly for a very long time. I think Geronimo could have been a carrier, but that's only what I read.

Well, there’s going to be a post-Morton, testing tissue samples, so we’ll know for certain whether

- a healthy animal as destroyed because people dug their toes in

or

an infected animal was allowed to remain at large for several years because of legal action by the owner

If the former, one animal has died.

If the latter ?.

Mortem

You wouldn’t believe how many times I changed that from what autocorrect wanted.

What has happened was inevitable. Very sad indeed , however if Geronimo's owner had been sensible the alpaca could have had a peaceful end in his own home. Bring dragged away and loaded into a horse box caused him great stress and could have been avoided.

We own an Exmoor pony, and I cannot imagine if that had been him, either of us allowing such a circus to accumulate, or deserting him when he would have needed us the most. I afraid this lady gets a black mark from us.

Peasblossom

Mortem

You wouldn’t believe how many times I changed that from what autocorrect wanted.

Oh I would believe it. Did you end up stabbing the keyboard and swearing at it ?

DillytheGardener

Oldwoman70 For pets, breeding or otherwise I don’t think animals should be transported via planes/ships/trains/trucks unless absolutely necessary.
I do try to make sure my own food is local too , I eat British meat and dairy where possible from the supermarket and local farms. It isn’t perfect, and I'm unlikely to become vegetarian at my age, but I don’t think that animal should have been imported.
That poor animal went from a hot and sub tropical NZ climate to a cool one, a long international flight and quarantine then euthanised after a frightened struggle.

I agree with you Dilly the point I was making is everyone seems to think he was a pet - he wasn't. His owner breeds alpacas and his being brought was a commercial venture not as a pet.

I agree too Dilly the poor animal was caused unnecessary suffering when he could have been euthanised quietly in his own surroundings. I think the owner and her supporters have behaved badly just to make a point and gain publicity.

Well personally if the poor animals was traumatic at the end blame the owner as she was asking for people to go and surround him so what choice did they have but to take him away

I'm absolutely no expert on TB in animals but, I did read on the ITV news page (24th August) that over a dozen leading vets, including a former senior official at Defra, had called on the government to halt the culling of Geronimo as they had grave reservations that the 2 positive tests in 2017 may well represent a false positive - he had previously been given 4 injections of bovine tuberculin.
I do think that an exception cannot be made for one individual animal but, I really do hope that he wasn't culled because Defra didn't want to admit that their system isn't foolproof.
Either way, Geronimo was a beautiful animal who should have died in his barn, with his owner by his side. Such a terrible shame that didn't happen

Jabberwok

We own an Exmoor pony, and I cannot imagine if that had been him, either of us allowing such a circus to accumulate, or deserting him when he would have needed us the most. I afraid this lady gets a black mark from us.

Totally agree Jabberwok the whole performance was unnecessary and attention seeking.

I agree Grannyben he should have been out down where he'd lived. Pulling him by a rope around his neck away from his owner into a trailer, was unnecessary.

I was just thinking about all the stories/films where the owner takes a sick animal to the barn and shoots it, so it has a quick and peaceful end, and I was wondering have we moved from the sort of people who'did hard tasks because they helped the animal, to a more sentimental lot who pass the responsibility to others?

I have just seen that a copy of a Email, from the Government Legal Department, has been released, concerning the post mortem on Geronimo.
It would seem that a request was made, for an appropriate independent witness to be present during the post mortem and, for samples to be made available for independent testing.
Both requests were turned down due to Health & Safety and Vivid precautions.
That does seem a shame because of Defra were proved right the whole thing could have been put to bed

Covid not vivid

Let’s all blame the owner instead of the intractable Defra officials who ordered the killing.

BlueBelle

Well personally if the poor animals was traumatic at the end blame the owner as she was asking for people to go and surround him so what choice did they have but to take him away

I’ve just seen it on the news. I didn’t really want to see it and I wish I hadn’t. He should have had a peaceful end. The people supposedly protecting him make me think of the sort of people that released mink into the wild thinking that they were doing good.

I saw what was coming up on the news and switched off. The owner should never have put Geronimo through this. It was cruel.

Shambolic to say the least

I for one hope the post mortem shows that the animal was infected otherwise we will never hear the end of this story.

I stand by what I said on another thread that the amount of media coverage of this story has been beyond ridiculous.

But maybe the owner was asking for people to help support her and build a human chain to surround the animal so don’t blame the group doing what she begged people to do to help her She and she alone has caused the problems
She was a woman with a cause

Don’t blame the owner she was doing what she could to save her animal. No one cares about terrified cows/pigs/chickens/sheep getting transported for miles , dragged out and getting their throats cut in their millions every day - no because they are making money for someone.