[Alpacasite] Re:What becomes of an alpaca?

This should not be a delicate question at all. Yes, we are all in
love with our alpacas and, yes, if we keep ours long enough we will be
faced with the passing of one or more of them.

In my case I have lost three crias, two last year and one this year (3
different reasons). Unless someone has walked in the same shoes they
can't understand the tragedy of so looking forward to having these
beautiful crias and then losing them. The questions and the "beating
up" of yourself about what you did wrong are horrible, and the grief
continues even if you learn that you didn't make any mistakes that led
to the deaths (I did make a mistake for one of the deaths).

What I did with two of the crias' bodies makes some people squeamish.
I took them to a taxidermist and had them skinned and tanned. The
other body was lost to a necropsy.

For now I have one of the skins and the other I'll get in another 6
months or so. I haven't done anything with the skin except touch it,
feel it's delightful softness and remember the sweet little female
cria that was born with a joint deformity that caused her what must
have been terrible pain and was the reason I had to put her down.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that in most of the livestock
world nothing goes to waste. At one time our family lived next to a
sheep rancher and I believed that it was a shame to waste the
beautiful, soft pelts of the stillborn lambs, but it was too expensive
for the rancher to pay for a taxidermists' services for a large number
of lamb pelts (there is a significant percentage of stillbirths in
sheep each year, apparently). The rancher rarely dealt with the death
of adult sheep because most of them went for slaughter at a certain
point. Most of us don't wish to slaughter our alpacas, but why allow
what usable parts remain of one that dies to go to waste?

Many people will disagree with me but I have a clear concience about
keeping the pelts, and I definitely hope I won't be faced with
deciding about another for a very LONG TIME!

Wendy Daly
Daly Hug Alpacas
Charles Town, WV

--- In Alpacasite@yahoogroups.com, Barrie Hanslip <bhanslip@s...> wrote:
>
> This IS a delicate question at present, but I do believe that meat
and pelts
> are definitely in the future.............and should be.
>
> Barrie Hanslip
> Sooke, BC
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Cathy Stephenson" <midnightfire@c...>
> To: <Alpacasite@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 10:13 AM
> Subject: Re: [Alpacasite] Re: Llama in car...
>
>
> > Your last paragraph is of interest to me about sheep. You have a
use for
> > the
> > end product in the way of pelts and meat. What becomes of an
alpaca? I
> > have tried to ask this question delicately and have not got the
answer I
> > have been looking for except " thats why there are so many geldings in
> > rescue" Where are we going with these animals? I am new and
maybe this
> > is
> > a really dumb as well as delicate question. Cathy
> > StephenOakes Farms
> > Chester, SC
>

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