The owner of an alpaca who was executed despite fresh claims insisting he did not have tuberculosis has insisted Boris Johnson must resign over the fiasco.
Government veterinarians put Geronimo down in August after disputing his claims of the disease.
Post-mortem tests on the animal showed no evidence of bovine tuberculosis.
Helen Macdonald (55) was determined that Geronimo was healthy and began a rescue campaign.
After losing her long legal battle, police officers escorted him to Wickwar in Gloucestershire and dragged them both.
Miss MacDonald (a registered veterinary nurse) is now considering suing ministers for his slaughter and has demanded that the Environment Secretary and PM resign.
She calls him amid an extremely difficult time for Johnson. Johnson has received a lot of backlash for Christmas party allegations at Downing Street and his Plan B for Covid which saw certain restrictions reinstated.
Helen Macdonald (55) was Geronimo’s 50-year-old owner and was determined that he wasn’t infected. She launched a campaign with her to save him
Now, she has called for Boris Johnson’s resignation (pictured yesterday).
To take Geronimo home, several police officers arrive on the Helen McDonald farm in August.
Today, she spoke out saying that the UK’s government was letting down its farming community.
Boris Johnson, George Eustice and all those who were involved in the debacle must be held responsible.
“It’s incredibly tragic and deeply distressing that after Geronimo’s senseless murder, the truth is revealed and the government refuses to stop it from happening again.
“This episode shows yet again that the government blindly adheres to flawed policy, and its own flawed version. It is a sad example of how they disregard all consequences.
Geronimo’s murder was the result of a David-and-Goliath legal battle between Geronimo and Defra, which gripped the country.
Eight-year-old Champion Alpaca was born in New Zealand and brought to Britain. He was later tested positive for bTB twice in 2017.
Miss Macdonald has always disputed the results – but the legal battle concluded with a High Court ruling in July that he should be destroyed.
In August, Defra and dozens of officers from the police forced their way onto Miss Macdonald’s farm to seize Geronimo.
She stated that Avon and Somerset Police asked her questions for ‘facilitating Murder’ and charged Defra with ‘bully boy techniques’ which are ‘frankly inexcusable.
Beginning tests in September did not reveal whether or not the animal was suffering from bovine tuberculosis.
No lesions were found on Geronimo’s lungs or respiratory tract – the most common place they are exhibited in an animal with the disease.
However, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that it had found a number of TB like lesions’ in liver and lymph nodes.
Additional tests, such as the creation of bacteriological cultures using tissue samples from the animals, have been performed since then to confirm that the animal had indeed contracted the disease.
These results were finalized in the week that passed.
Christine Middlemiss, chief veterinary officer at Chief Veterinary Hospital was also accused of Miss Macdonald’s inaccuracy by not corroboring these results. Political stooge used to hide the incompetence of the government’.
“For almost five years we have requested the Government to retest their Bovine TB policies, reconsider them, and revise them. We appeal directly to Boris Johnson (Prime Minister) and George Eustice, Secretary of State.
“We offered Geronimo in a medical research program to develop a new anti-TB vaccine. We tried multiple times to uncover the truth. At each stage, we were denied.
“Instead, DEFRA has subjected me to years of harassment and bullying. George Eustice spent an absurd amount of British taxpayers’ money and resources trying to prove this imported alpaca had Bovine Tuberculosis. We knew that all along, but he ordered Geronimo be sentenced to unjust death.