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“Absolutely heartbreaking”: Geronimo the alpaca put down amid public outcry

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A British alpaca named Geronimo has been put down after making headlines around the world as supporters battled to overturn a court warrant for his death.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The court issued a warrant for Geronimo to be put down after the alpaca returned a positive test result for bovine tuberculosis.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Geronimo was put down on Wednesday at his owner’s Gloucestershire farm by vets, after the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed he had tested positive a second time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Helen MacDonal, Geronimo’s owner, had previously told </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Current Affair </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">that she didn’t believe her eight-year-old alpaca had the disease.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The 50-year-old went on to say the decision to put him down was “absolutely heartbreaking”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“They are assassinating him, it’s like an execution and there’s no foundation that’s the horror of it,” Ms MacDonald said at the time.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">National disgrace <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/geronimo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#geronimo</a> <a href="https://t.co/8jHjysF9Zn">pic.twitter.com/8jHjysF9Zn</a></p> — dominic dyer (@domdyer70) <a href="https://twitter.com/domdyer70/status/1432683202628440067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Geronimo was born in Australia and grew up in New Zealand, where tested negative to the disease prior to Helen importing him to her farm.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, he was tested once again upon arrival to the UK in 2017, where he received two positive results.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ms MacDonald, a veterinary nurse, appealed to Defra to allow Geronimo to take a third test or allow him to live to help with research into the disease.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She argued that the test was flawed and that he had previously tested positive because of repeated priming with a purified protein derivative of bovine tuberculosis bacteria called tuberculin.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a last-ditch effort to save the animal, Ms MacDonald took her case to the High Court.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, she lost on August 18, with the court issuing a warrant giving Defra until September 4 to euthanise Geronimo.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">More than 140,000 people have signed a petition to save the alpaca, while Ms MacDonald has invested over $100,000 in the cause.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Protestors took to the streets in early August to demonstrate against the ruling, with about 30 campaigners marching from Defra’s headquarters to Number 10 Downing Street.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 0px; height: 0px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7843636/gettyimages-1234595946.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/8d47434890b84bc88c46dc79af60c437" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Getty Images</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Supporters camped out at the farm to try to prevent officials from arriving to kill the alpaca, and some were seen talking to police as the animal was taken away.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One woman was briefly arrested after spraying officers with a water pistol, but was soon de-arrested.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 333.49609375px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7843635/gettyimages-1234760565.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/c92fc73b725b441c82b1fbfd22b30ad4" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Getty Images</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ms MacDonald also set up a webcam over Geronimo’s paddock so that everyone could see what happened to him.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Everyone should be behind this little guy because he stands for justice and accountability,” Ms MacDonald said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chief veterinary officer Christine Middlemiss said it was a “terribly sad situation” but that culling animals that tested positive for bovine tuberculosis was crucial to minimise its spread.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Not only is it essential to protect the livelihoods of our farming industry and rural communities, but it is also necessary to avoid more TB cases in humans,” she said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“No-one wants to have cull infected animals if it can be avoided.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Defra spokesperson said a post-mortem examination would be carried out by veterinary pathologists, as well as a study of tissue samples, with the process taking up to three months.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Dominic Dyer / Twitter</span></em></p>

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5 shocking facts about tuberculosis

<p>Tuberculosis is seen as an “ancient disease” that the world has evolved beyond. However, this is not actually the case. In third-world countries, tuberculosis is still a part of day-to-day life due to poor living conditions and a lack of education.</p> <p>So that we can continue to fight this deadly disease, get in the know and read the following ten facts about tuberculosis you may not have known.</p> <p><strong>Fact #1 Many of us carry latent TB foci inside of our lungs</strong><br />About one third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis bacteria. However, only a small proportion of those infected will become sick with TB – five to 10 per cent to be exact. We all are exposed to the organism early on in life and would have formed foci of infection in the lungs (primary TB). Our immune system would have contained the infection and prevented us from suffering from the disease. It is when our immune system becomes weak for some reason, or is overwhelmed by the infection or any other cause, that we suffer the disease – also known as reactivation. The organisms can travel from the foci of infection in the lungs to other sites leading to secondary infection – TB of lymph nodes, spine and so on.</p> <p><strong>Fact#2</strong> <strong>People are still suffering</strong><br />In 2014, 9.6 million people fell ill with TB, with one million suffers being children. 140,000 children died out of a total of 1.5 million people that died (including 0.4 million people with HIV). In fact, TB ranks alongside HIV as a leading cause of death worldwide. About 95 per cent of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries and it is among the top five causes of death among women aged 15 to 44. Fortunately, the number of people falling ill with TB is declining and the TB death rate dropped 47 per cent between 1990 and 2015 worldwide.</p> <p><strong>Fact #3 Tuberculosis is completely treatable</strong><br />If the full course of medication is taken properly and regular follow-ups with a doctor are followed, TB can be completely cured. The main drugs used for TB are Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide, Ethambutol and Streptomycin. </p> <p><strong>Fact #4: Its highly contagious</strong> <br />Tuberculosis spreads through the air when a person with an active TB infection coughs, sneezes, speaks or sings. Germs can stay in the air for hours.</p> <p><strong>Fact #5 The numbers</strong></p> <ul> <li>TB kills more youth and adults than any other infectious disease</li> <li>Someone get sick from TB every four seconds</li> <li>Someone dies from TB every 10 seconds</li> </ul> <p>Last May, at the <a href="http://www.who.int/campaigns/tb-day/2015/event/en/" target="_blank"><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">World Health Assembly</span>,</em></strong></a> governments agreed on ambitious new 20-year (2016-2035) strategy to end the global TB epidemic.</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/health/body/2016/03/silent-symptoms-of-diabetes/">5 silent symptoms of diabetes you could be missing</a></strong></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/news/news/2016/01/pains-you-should-never-ignore/">6 pains you should never ignore</a></strong></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/health/body/2016/02/how-to-slow-down-arthritis/">8 ways to slow down arthritis</a></strong></em></span></p>

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