Ep 86: Raising Alpacas With Helen MacDonald (Part 1)

You may know Helen MacDonald as the owner of Geronimo the alpaca – however, there is so much more to her story! As such we have decided to release Helen’s episode in two parts. In Part One, we get to know the fascinating person behind the scandal.

We begin this week’s episode discussing Helen’s time spent in Australia as a child and the difference in culture and education that she experienced when she moved back to the UK.

Formerly a keen diver, Helen and Julian discuss the wonderful places they have explored under the sea and we learn how one summer changed everything about Helen’s career path, beginning her love of Veterinary Nursing.

With 32 years experience in the industry, Helen has worn many hats. From Head Nurse to Teacher, Locum to Assessor – even hitting the road in 2010 to work in the commercial veterinary sector in sales and practice support.

Her fascination for alpacas led to her buying her first 3 breeding females in 2002. 20 years later, she now has a quality breeding herd of over 80 coloured alpacas. Her focus is on the health and welfare of alpacas with an emphasis on best practice, biosecurity, education and evidence-based science.

Following the horrific events surrounding Geronimo spanning 5 years, she is now a reluctant campaigner for evidence-based science and transparent justifiable policies for disease eradication. We will be discussing Geronimo’s story in next week’s episode, which will be released on Thursday the 24th of November.