Category: Social media

Alpacas the new unwanted.

The recent case of the slaughter of Geronimo the alpaca that hit the headlines worldwide has highlighted the increasingly popular fad of keeping these animals.

There has been a trend in the last decade or so to keep Alpacas to farm and as pets. It has become “trendy” in the last decade for people who live or move to the countryside and have a spare field to acquire them as a hobby. Where and why this started is difficult to understand, but it appears to be based on a romantic idyll of selling the wool and taking up weaving. 

Baby alpacas are relatively cute in the eyes of many people and one can see their appeal. They are described in many blog articles and advertisements as being “adorable“ which is perhaps going a bit far. They are not a companion pet or a pet of any sort, but classified more in the exotic livestock category and even less suitable than keeping a sheep, cow or pig would be. And when full grown many cease to look that cute or attractive.

Even Facebook and Gum tree run adverts for unwanted ones.

The dream of owning these animals is popular in the USA, Canada, Australia and the U.K., with the aim of making money from their fur or breeding and selling them. Unfortunately for many the reality soon kicks in when they find them a lot more difficult and expensive to look after than they imagined. It is not just restricted to alpacas but includes emus, ostriches, llamas and goats. 

Alpacas have now joined the sad long list of the unwanted animals with sites like Facebook and Gum Tree running adverts for unwanted ones. To meet the demand new alpaca charity rescue centres are springing up in all these countries with the inevitable plea for donations. New homes need to be found which isn’t easy as they need space, special care and are expensive to keep. Many alpacas are being neglected or cruelly treated and so SPCA’s in the U.K., Canada, America and Australia are having to get involved and owners are being prosecuted. And all this because of this misguided romantic dream by people of keeping them.

In the USA and Canada farming alpacas was heavily marketed and the industry expanded too quickly with people trying to cash in on the popularity of alpaca wool and garments. It wasn’t long before production outstripped the demand for alpaca wool – something known as a ‘speculative livestock bubble’. Alpaca keepers and breeders soon found themselves in financial difficulties and unable to offload their animals, not even by giving them away. They cost anywhere from £200 for a male to thousands of pounds for a female. Some unfortunates end up being slaughtered for their meat. Some rescues have seen a threefold increase in the number of unwanted and abandoned ones recently with one rescue centre rehoming 405 since 2008. 

People are attracted to them by their ‘cuteness’

Alpaca with young
Cuteness personified, but wait until it grows up. Alpacas are not suitable pets.

So before buying alpacas think about this…

  • Alpacas need to live as a herd with a minimum of three or four animals;
  • Three or four alpacas require at least two acres of pasture;
  • You require a veterinary surgeon with expertise in dealing with them, preferably a member of the British Veterinary Camelid Society (BVCS)
  • They require shearing, worming and vaccinating yearly;
  • Their fur and nails need clipping every two months;
  • They need to have access to shelter;
  • They need dietary supplements;
  • They can be difficult to handle and may not like being cuddled or stroked;
  • THEY ARE NOT COMPANION PETS.

Alpacas and llamas are best left to live in South America.

A case for equal rights for cats.

Cats are just about on a par with dogs in the popularity stakes as a companion pet with dogs just edging it so in theory we should be treating their interests and rights equally. But unfortunately it appears that cats do not have the same PR status as dogs with cats tending to be ignored in favour of dogs and in many instances virtually discriminated against.

Cats cannot do anything right.

As a society we do not take their welfare and interests as seriously as dogs. There is a definite bias in the law with most regulating and protecting dogs while cats are mostly disregarded and left legally owner-less. Recently the UK introduced a new law controlling puppy farming but not kitten farming, although it did bring in new rules protecting the sale of kittens. There is no mandatory microchipping as there is with dogs and you must report a dog injured in a road traffic collision but not a cat. We have had a cat crisis in the UK for years with thousands of stray and feral cats roaming the country, but no government initiative to solve the problem unlike dogs where we introduced dog wardens.

Dog and cat
Cats and dogs give us equal affection and loyalty so why do we treat them differently.

There is only one national cat animal charity in the UK compared with several that concentrate on dogs and it only receives half the donations of just one of those helping dogs. “I hate cats” is a more often heard phrase than “I hate dogs“. The internet is awash with implements and gizmos including electronic and ultrasonic scarers, motion water sprinklers and prickle strips to drench, electrocute and generally maim them and even pellets impregnated with the essence of lion dung is sold to ward them off.

We basically allow dogs to poo where they want and we mostly turn a blind eye to all the abandoned plastic bags whereas cats are still vilified for messing in a flower bed even though they have the decency to cover up their toiletry antics unlike dogs. We allow dogs to roam open spaces, chase wildlife and livestock and often cause a nuisance but cats are maligned for roaming free and following their predatory instincts of stalking birds and small animals. We commit more cruelty on cats for these reasons and in some parts of the world attempt to ban their keeping or legally confine indoors.

Television documentaries nearly all focus on dogs with cats rarely getting a look in, so we have the Dog Rescuers and For the Love of Dogs with Paul O’Grady to name just two. Then we have the annual coverage of Crufts Dog Show but to my knowledge never a cat show. Battersea Dogs Home is also a cats home, but this part of the title is rarely referred to. There are so many examples of how we denigrate cats in preference to dogs.

Cats win over dogs on social media.

The one place that cats win over dogs appears to be internet social media sites and unfortunately for the wrong reasons. People love to make videos of cats being silly or cute or being forced to do unnatural acts so that we can have a good laugh at them. Most of them are not funny at all and cats could do without them. There are dozens of ‘famous cats’ getting millions of hits like Grumpy cat or keyboard cat videos of a ginger cat in a dress playing a toy piano or a cat in a shark costume on a roomba chasing a duckling. There is sadly no end to them.

In the real world there is no way of ignoring the fact that cats rank second to dogs in our modern society and are far more maligned than the dog. This has come about as many people do not like the fact that they are so independent of us and difficult to dominate. They have a take it or leave it attitude towards us. We view them as less of a companion pet as we cannot share as many of our interests with them such as hiking, a car drive or a trip down the shops and because of this we do not care as much about them. It is also why we are less concerned about so many millions being culled and killed around the world each year when a single healthy dog being euthanised causes such outrage.

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