Geronimo the alpaca killed as legal row ends

robfosters said:
Stop it, your compassion is reducing me to tears
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Compassion for a pet would have the goalposts on greased rails. The owner couldn't have been more clear about their intent to obstruct and 4 years demonstrates that.

It was beyond this alpaca owner to have their animal destroyed and a mockery of disease control while tens of thousands of cattle (owned by emotionless farmers?) were destroyed in the UK due to bTB infection in that period.
 
If the owner cared about the pet they should have handled the animal and brought it calmly to a vet for it to be euthanased. Instead they let a media circus and wild goose (alpaca?) chase happen instead, frightening the poor animal and risking the workers. Shocking behaviour for an animal lover.
 
Hotwired said:
Compassion for a pet would have the goalposts on greased rails. The owner couldn't have been more clear about their intent to obstruct and 4 years demonstrates that.

It was beyond this alpaca owner to have their animal destroyed and a mockery of disease control while tens of thousands of cattle (owned by emotionless farmers?) were destroyed in the UK due to bTB infection in that period.
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Isn't it still the case that BTB transmission vectors are very poorly understood... I wonder what actual risk this animal posed to any other.

I mean, they've culled thousands of badgers and they still have no idea if it had any effect at all.
 
Simple facts are, the Alpaca has BTB following 2 tests. The owner doesnt want to lose her pet because she's being selfish which is understandable as its her pet. However....... she cries to the BBC to make a story about it, wastes the courts time twice and taxpayers money because she doesn't want to give up her pet. Rather than biting the bullet and getting it euthanised on her own terms she made a media circus of it hoping media pressue would make defra back down and she lost. Finally defra has done what they should and had to go in force with the fuzz because of the media circus she stirred up.

Simple fact is she put cattle herds and therefore humans at risk of TB so she was being incredibly short sighted and selfish.
 
skyripper said:
If the owner cared about the pet they should have handled the animal and brought it calmly to a vet for it to be euthanased. Instead they let a media circus and wild goose (alpaca?) chase happen instead, frightening the poor animal and risking the workers. Shocking behaviour for an animal lover.
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yupp...hard to know exactly from the reports but a 'veterinary nurse' on a 'farm' should know better...

Geronimo has been in quarantine with five other alpacas on her farm in Wickwar, near Bristol since arriving in the UK in August 2017.
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In the past four years the restrictions enforced on her alpaca farm mean she has been unable to trade livestock or receive any income from it.
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no doubt she's attached to him but maybe not quite as simple as being a 'pet'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-57785542
 
Bear said:
I get that farmers might be at risk but this is her pet. I would be mortified if someone wanted to destroy my dog and would fight to keep it alive
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Eh? It was a stud animal on a farm. An expensive (and presumably uninsured) business investment not a pet.
 
I really felt sorry seeing Geronimo being dragged off in the way he was. He must have been so frightened and confused.

I think a vet should have been able to go to him and done the procedure where he could be put to sleep feeling loved rather than being hauled off with lots of people around him.
 
The whole farce was created by the lady herself, and was very hard for the authorities to deal with as a result. The animal could have been destroyed/removed from the farm in a much more humane/quick/safe way had she not rallied the unwashed mob/nutters to block the way, and gone about every possible way of trying to block the sensible (but sad) destruction of an infected animal.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
The whole farce was created by the lady herself, and was very hard for the authorities to deal with as a result. The animal could have been destroyed/removed from the farm in a much more humane/quick/safe way had she not rallied the unwashed mob/nutters to block the way, and gone about every possible way of trying to block the sensible (but sad) destruction of an infected animal.
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There's obviously a legal issue also if it can drag on for 4 years, they either should have allowed one final test before destruction to satisfy the owner and then had the animal euthanised in a less stressful way or had destroyed it 4 years ago after the last test turned up positive instead again in a non stressful way that put the animals welfare first
 
Minusorange said:
There's obviously a legal issue also if it can drag on for 4 years, they either should have allowed one final test before destruction to satisfy the owner and then had the animal euthanised in a less stressful way or had destroyed it 4 years ago after the last test turned up positive instead again in a non stressful way that put the animals welfare first
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But it wouldn't have satisfied the owner.
 
Tefal said:
Eh? It was a stud animal on a farm. An expensive (and presumably uninsured) business investment not a pet.
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Ah ok, I saw an article on the news which made it look like a pet (photos together, having her arm round it etc.), I mistakenly took that to mean it was a pet, perhaps that was her intention to garner support.
 
Robbo said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-58255378

Or is the owner just being dramatic when she knows full well this is normal procedure.

On the face of it, it seems quite harsh, was there nothing else that could be done? If the animal is living effectively in isolation on a farm, I'm not really seeing the danger it poses.
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badger walks thru alpaca zone, badger gets the TB, badger infects all local herds, all local herds have to be destroyed
typhoid Mary the Alpaca
 
fiacha said:
Not true, every farmer I know has an emotional attachment to their herd. The hardest of farmers still have favorites and "pets" that their children helped to raise. Even more so with dairy herds where the farmer will probably have helped deliver many of them. They are not just a source of income.
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Yea im sure... just look at Clarkson, he was well upset when a lamb died and said he "loved" his sheep.... and they arrive back chopped up, wrapped in plastic and hes not bothered one bit :confused:
 
Poor alpaca but the press have given this much too much stock, considering the more important and human issues going on.
 
Johno please? said:
Yea im sure... just look at Clarkson, he was well upset when a lamb died and said he "loved" his sheep.... and they arrive back chopped up, wrapped in plastic and hes not bothered one bit :confused:
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Its more than possible to grow attachment to an animal you are raising for food but still understand what needs to be done.

I was pretty upset seeing my 4 pigs go into the abattoir, but they were always going to be butchered for meat, and what the hell would I do with 4 full size giant pigs down the line.

I cry my tears into sausage sandwiches.
 
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