Geronimo The Famous 'Death Row Alpaca' Finally Put To Death After Four Years

Geronimo, the so-called "Death Row Alpaca" who has been residing in England for the past four years, has finally been put down after a lengthy legal battle for his life.

The news spread this afternoon on Twitter, where many outside of England were surprised to discover there was a "Death Row Alpaca" and had to work backward to understand the full context of the story.

"Death row alpaca" is a phrase I never thought I'd see.

Well played, 2021. https://t.co/tit3oQOvrq

— Brian Faughnan (@BrianFaughnan) August 31, 2021

The context is thus: Geronimo the alpaca lived at Shepherds Close Farm, an Alpaca farm near Bristol in England. Owner Helen Macdonald purchased Geronimo from New Zealand in 2017, but was kept in quarantine since his arrival after testing positive for bovine tuberculosis. The disease leads to the slaughter of thousands of cattle in England every year in order to prevent it from spreading, and the Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) ordered the alpaca to be put to death.

However, Macdonald questioned the validity of the results, noting that Geronimo had tested negative for the disease four times while in New Zealand. She contended Geronimo had been "primed" to test positive while in England, as he'd received the vaccine for the disease, bovine tuberculin, prior to the tests, and maintained that Geronimo was healthy. Geronimo twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis in 2017, but Macdonald argued the Enferplex test that produced the results, though it has a 99.3% accuracy rate when testing for the disease in cattle, had insufficient evidence for its efficacy on alpacas.

The fate of Geronimo drew national attention in England, as 100,000 Brits petitioned Boris Johnson to halt the killing. Boris' father Stanley came out in support of Geronimo's life. Nevertheless, Macdonald lost her final appeal for Geronimo's life earlier this month, with the high court ruling out any further tests.

The story became the morbid fascination of the British public; a death row livestream played during Geronimo's final days, and a small militia was present at the scene to try and prevent DEFRA from putting Geronimo down. Despite this, the euthanization went through as planned earlier this morning.

RIP Geronimo, may you chew hay and be cute in heaven.

pic.twitter.com/OcXSgvawwQ

— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) August 31, 2021