Friday, June 26, 2009

Dog Attacks on Alpacas

Last weekend i received a phone call from a fellow breeder, to tell me a friend had lost one of his valuable potential stud male alpacas to Dogs or foxes over night.
He was heart broken, and has since got his shooters licence.
as the city is moving out to the country, we are hearing more and more alpacas are being taken by dog fox attacks.
you usually do not see what does the damage, as it is usually early hours in the morning.
I have been called out a few times to assist others who have had attacks. Yes, alpacas do guard sheep flocks, goat herds, cows so they can deliver the calves, chickens, etc.
The places i have been called out to assist, and they witnessed the attack, they said the herd gathered together, and one or two of the alpacas, then went out to protect the herd, in each occasion i have seen, the alpacas have been caught in fences in the process of protecting the herd.
and of course once caught they are usually mauled by the dog or fox.
there are incidences of not just one alpaca being taken. I have read of one occasion of 17 alpacas taken ion one night.
In all cases that i know of where people have witnessed or discovered the attack whilst the attack was happening, there was always more than 1 dog, or foxes.
There can be packs of dogs or a few foxes, and even a pack of dogs can take down a cow or a horse.
With the ones that go to protect the herd, this explains why usually the most healthiest and strongest alpaca is the one that was taken.
We all are going to be affected by this one day.
and if affected, we should send our sympathies, not be mocked or spread rumors.
If one knew the alpacas were going to be attacked that night, the breeder would have been there to kill The dogs or foxes, and would do anything in their power to protect their alpacas, as we all love our alpacas.
You have no way of knowing that this can happen, or will happen, and if it is going to happen, when.
It is not lack of good animal management, it is not negligence, it is not at any one's fault.
Each Alpaca carer /owner love their animals so much, i know i would do anything top protect our alpacas.
There are some local breeders that take advantage of others bad luck to try and turn this to their own advantage. A prominent UK along with his Australian associate also has tried to use others bad luck, to try and gain extra business to their own advantage.
These same people have acted so irresponsible about the health of their own alpacas, not shearing their black alpacas in one of the hottest summers in Australian history, with the intention of making extra weight for UK screening.
The alpaca's welfare was not taken into account.

3 comments:

Tracey Hey said...

I don’t usually read your blog but it has been brought to my attention by a fellow UK breeder who has seen the mention of “former Tasmanian” and “black alpacas” and assumed that the reference was to Tim. Since this doesn’t relate to Tim but could potentially harm his reputation we would appreciate it if you could clarify these comments for the readers of your blog, or better still remove them. Thanks.

Eddie said...

I saw this alpaca and being told not to shear it when it was days of40 plus made it weak and yes dogs picked it out and took it down all in the name of keeping weight on for UK export.And as far as Mariah Hill goe's they only did what the UK owner said and his Australian lacky Good One You Two Had A Hand In Killing This Alpaca.

Alpacarae said...

All comments made in reference to the dog attack, some people have thought we were referring to Tim Hey, we stress this is not the case.
We appolagise to Tim and his family for any misunderstanding, and we have always found Tim to be both Reputable, fair, and good to deal with. Once again sorry for any misunderstanding.