In the British capital, London, around a hundred animal rights activists roamed the streets of Westminster on Monday.
The rally for the alpaca "Geronimo" ended at 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's residence.
The British Ministry of the Environment wants the animal to be euthanized on the basis of a veterinary ordinance.
The whole country is moved by the fate of the alpaca.
"Geronimo", the title story of the tabloid press has been about for a week, had tested positive for bovine tuberculosis twice.
Kevin Hanschke
Volunteer.
Follow I follow
Animals that test positive are usually killed to contain the disease. But many Britons do not want to accept that. Geronimo's owner, Helen Macdonald from Gloucestershire, has been arguing with the veterinary authorities since then. She imported the alpaca from New Zealand four years ago. As soon as it arrived in the UK, the animal tested positive for the disease. Last week, a court backed the authorities' decision and gave the Environment Ministry thirty days to put Geronimo to sleep. Macdonald calls the action of the authorities "barbaric", and not only many animal rights activists agree.
In just a few days, more than 100,000 people signed a petition calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson and environmental authorities to keep the animal alive. The initiators are convinced that the tests for bovine tuberculosis in alpacas show incorrect results. "The Ministry of the Environment has known for years that tuberculosis skin tests in alpacas can lead to false-positive results," said Dominic Dyer of the Born Free Foundation. Instead of examining Geronimo with a more detailed blood test, Environment Secretary George Eustice ordered the animal's death "to avoid a closer examination of the government's numerous failings in combating bovine tuberculosis in cattle, alpacas and badgers," said Dyer.
This is also why the animal rights activists are calling for more precise test procedures and a repeated test to prove Geronimo's disease status before his death.
A message delivered to the Prime Minister also stated that Geronimo would have to be dead long ago if he actually had bovine tuberculosis.
However, the Ministry of the Environment continues to insist that the animal be euthanized.
It was originally planned that live alpacas would accompany the demonstration.
However, shortly before the start of the protest march, the plan was halted due to concerns about the safety of the animals given the expected crowd.
The demonstration was organized by members of the Born Free Foundation, the Alpaca Society and Iain McGill, a practicing veterinarian and critic of Boris Johnson's environmental policy.
Another 50 people are also said to have gathered at Macdonald's farm. They want to form a "peaceful human shield" around the alpaca, the activists told the newspaper "The Independent". One wants to stay “as long as it is necessary”.
The British Environment Minister George Eustice, who has been with the Johnson cabinet since 2020, defended his agency's actions in Sunday's Daily Mail. "Every week we lose 500 cattle to tuberculosis and each one is a tragedy for the farmers - also for the owner of Geronimo," he wrote there. Nevertheless, the containment of the epidemic is only possible by euthanizing sick animals that have tested positive. There is no other solution. Geronimo had been tested twice with the "Enferplex" test. It is based on the test procedure actually accepted by the British Alpaca Society. When it comes to positive test results, he is more than 99 percent accurate, writes the minister.In order to spare as many animals and farmers as possible from such suffering from bovine tuberculosis in the future, he hopes that vaccine development will progress.