23/12/2019
Please can you share and help to save my friend Geronimo! Thank you. Love you, Archie. ###
🖤💜 Geronimo's Story - August 2017 - Dec 2019 💜🖤
Geronimo has been living under the threat of being cruelly slaughtered since 5 September 2017 on the false basis that he is infected with bovine tuberculosis (bTB), when he clearly is not.
It is fact that the use of blood tests with the addition of ‘priming with tuberculin’ has never been evaluated in camelids, let alone when given 4 and then 5 times in Geronimo’s case.
It is also fact that DEFRA have flatly refused to work with industry and independent test providers to conduct studies into the effects of priming before blood tests.
The evidence that Geronimo has never been exposed to bTB is clear and robust. DEFRA officials alleged in a meeting with me in February 2018 that Geronimo ‘caught’ bTB at a show in New Zealand. The last time that Geronimo was at a show was in January 2015 (i.e. almost 5 years ago). There is abundant evidence to refute that belief.
The Secretary of State (then Michael Gove) had consistently refused to give permission for further testing. In November 2018 we were granted permission for judicial review at the High Court in London.
In March 2019 the Judge ruled that the Court does not have the power to quash the Secretary of State’s decision to order the slaughter of Geronimo. While the Judge found that Geronimo’s two positive test results for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) may be inaccurate, he disagreed with our submission that the Secretary of State had behaved irrationally in deciding to slaughter Geronimo.
In November 2019, the Court of Appeal refused our application for permission to appeal the High Court's Order so the Secretary of State's decision to slaughter Geronimo stands.
It is important to note that neither Court stated that it believed that Geronimo actually has bTB; each Court merely concluded that the Secretary of State's decision, whether correct or not, could not be labelled "irrational" (and therefore subject to being quashed).
We have until 13 May 2020 to make an application to the European Court of Human Rights. In the meantime, we will strongly contest any attempt by the Secretary of State to slaughter Geronimo.
I have written to Theresa Villiers asking her to review Geronimo's case and to consent to a meeting with me as a matter of urgency.
We hope that, unlike her predecessor, Ms Villiers will accept that there is no scientific foundation for suspecting bTB in our perfectly healthy boy.
We also hope that the new Secretary of State will realise that blaming New Zealand for allowing the export of an allegedly bTB-positive into the UK (which DEFRA has previously done) is immoral, absurd and wholly unacceptable.
We will continue to seek the further testing of Geronimo according to a protocol that avoids the scientifically uncertain results of priming a camelid with tuberculin multiple times before subjecting that animal to a bTB blood test.
Given the overwhelming evidence pointing to Geronimo's ongoing good health, we will continue to use every avenue still available to us to resist his needless slaughter at the hands of a cruel and unreflective government.
NO DISEASE, NO EVIDENCE, NO SLAUGHTER
www.crowdjustice.com/case/savegeronimo
