Today at 5 p.m. local time the alarm that should have enabled owner Helen MacDonald to administer the fatal shot to Jeronimo herself is expiring. It still does not intend to do so, according to the Guardian, among other things.
Public debate in England about Geronimo’s future led, among other things, to a petition to save the animal. It is now signed by 130,000 people. There is even a human shield formed around the Jeronimo Pill. All this seems in vain, like the last hope, that a final hearing in the High Court of London, fell in Geronimo’s favour.
Bovine tuberculosis can have devastating effects on cattle and is highly contagious. According to MacDonald, the veterinary surgeon himself, Jeronimo could not have had tuberculosis at all. The animal actually tested positive in 2017 and has since been isolated from other alpacas. “If he had it, he would have died long ago and is healthy and fit.” She says other McDonald’s alpacas are healthy, too. Therefore, she does not trust the tests that showed Geronimo to be infected.
However, Wednesday’s ruling by Judge Stacey means Jeronimo must be dropped for good. It could have happened anytime after 4:30 p.m. Thursday, but a government representative said he would wait at least until Friday afternoon.
According to MacDonald, the Department of the Environment wants her to take the lethal injection herself, but this will not happen. “I will not break any laws to stop them, but I will add, there is a camera above the kraal of Geronimo. And if they kill him, they do it in front of the world.”
