Geronimo the alpaca gets temporary reprieve as hearing is adjourned

Helen Macdonald’s animal has been ordered for destruction after twice testing positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB)

An alpaca whose life hangs in the balance has received a temporary reprieve, after an urgent High Court hearing was adjourned.

Geronimo twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis, and the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) ordered him to be euthanised.

An application for a temporary injunction to halt the destruction order was heard earlier.

The judge requested more details and adjourned the case until Wednesday.

Mrs Justice Stacey, at the High Court in London, said she would need further information from Geronimo's owner Helen Macdonald and from Government lawyers before she could make her decision.

If the judge refuses the application, Defra will be able to slaughter Geronimo as there is no further right of appeal for Ms Macdonald.

If she grants the application, the alpaca will survive until a further hearing can be held which is likely to determine whether there was a material non-disclosure on Defra's part in the earlier proceedings and whether the case should be reopened.

Ms Macdonald, who owns a farm at Wickwar, near Bristol, imported Geronimo from New Zealand in 2017.

She believes the tests are returning false positives, but has been refused permission to have him tested a third time.

Ms Macdonald’s lawyers have written to the Environment Secretary to suggest Geronimo’s life could be saved and instead he could be studied for research

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Earlier this month she lost her final appeal to save Geronimo and a warrant was signed for his destruction.

Representing Ms Macdonald, Catrin McGahey QC told the court it had come to light that other animals subjected to the same testing regime as Geronimo, had shown no signs of the disease after being euthanised.

"That information absolutely should have been before the two (previous) judges," she said.

Ned Westaway, for Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, said "the suggestion of material non-disclosure is, frankly, unfounded".

"The applicant has lost repeatedly in this case, in my submission this is a case that has come very much to the end of the road," he added.

Mr Westaway said Defra would not execute the warrant until the issue had been resolved.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said it was an “arduous but necessary endeavour” to cull animals that test positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB)

Last week the Government insisted all the evidence on the animal's condition had been "looked at very carefully".

A Defra spokesman said: "We are sympathetic to Ms Macdonald's situation, just as we are with everyone with animals affected by this terrible disease.

"It is for this reason that the testing results and options for Geronimo have been very carefully considered by Defra, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and its veterinary experts, as well as passing several stages of thorough legal scrutiny."