Geronimo lives to fight another day! Protesters formed human shield around alpaca's paddock as owner awaits High Court decision on his fate

Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca surrounded his paddock yesterday as his owner declared he ‘lives to fight another day’.

The human shield formed at 4pm, when a previous stay of execution on the eight-year-old animal, pictured, expired.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has ordered that Geronimo be killed because he has twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis. 

Although Geronimo’s stay of execution expired yesterday afternoon, Government sources said he would be allowed to live to see in the new day

The human shield formed at 4pm, when a previous stay of execution on the eight-year-old animal, pictured, expired

But after the alpaca’s owner Helen Macdonald made a last-ditch legal application to delay the order, both sides are now waiting on a decision from the High Court.

Officials confirmed the application had been lodged at the court but had not yet been considered by a judge. 

And although Geronimo’s stay of execution expired yesterday afternoon, Government sources said he would be allowed to live to see in the new day at least.

Miss Macdonald – who owns a farm in Wickwar, Gloucestershire – said: ‘Although it looks like Geronimo will live to fight another day we are still not exactly sure where this leaves us legally.

‘If Defra has misled the court by failing to disclose evidence which would have been beneficial to our case then that is plainly wrong.’

A Defra spokesman said ‘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’.