I encountered groups who struggle quietly and desperately to clean up the mess. There are formal organizations scattered across the United States dedicated each in their own way, each with their own philosophies focusing on trying to salvage the forgotten, or educate the public about the realities of llamas. These volunteers operate on shoestring budgets, minimal donations of funds and supplies, and struggle to clean up the messes left behind by others. Many times the mess is the poor forgotten couple who bought some llamas sometimes from a "well known breeder" sometimes just from 'Johnny across town" as pets and now don't know what to do. And many times, its 13 llamas or 6 llamas or 18 llamas or more than 40 llamas that have been forgotten by the world and just dumped, or walked away from.

There are also the little quiet people who just struggle in their own neighborhoods to do right, stumbling along on their own and trying to learn as they go.

There's Tracey and John, llama owners who drove by a slaughter house and found 6, no 10, oops 13 llamas in the lot waiting to be purchased and slaughtered, and shelled out their personal funds to buy them and are now desperately working to find adoptive homes for these dumped animals. Some have been handled in the past, all are just "plain John llamas", and some have obviously been treated like the ' old junkyard dog'.

There's Don who got a male and female pair of llamas from some folks who had llamas they allowed all the neighbor kids to chase and try to ride until they got bucked off, who doesn't know what to do with the intact male constantly attacking him when he approaches the pregnant female.

There's Reza, who sort of inherited a group of llamas, and emus and pigeons and chickens, and goats and ducks and geese and doesn't know what to do, reaching out for help trying to find good homes.

Like all animal related businesses, the world of llamas has show gatherings full of pomp and circumstance designed to spotlight the best the world of llamas has created. BUT, with creation comes a moral imperative and responsibility to remember that someday the mules will get too old to pull a plow, and something better will come along. The parts of our past that got us where we are still need to be cared for, not merely hidden off in a corner or discarded for the sake of convenience. There's a responsibility to ensure the animal you chose to create finds a place in this world that provides the dignity and respect it deserves. There's a responsibility to make certain the animal has been properly trained. There's a responsibility to make certain the people who are buying your animal have also been properly trained and that they have the resources and continual access to mentoring as needed. But that's a different tale for others to tell.

There will always be rescues regardless of the animal, regardless of the laws, regardless of all the hand wringing at llama gatherings. There will always be a Henry somewhere, maggoty and dying, and taken to auction only because he was in a herd of males and got attacked and why bother after all there's more where he came from.

Continued:

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Page 3 of 4 Alteration, modification, or reproduction in whole or in part is by express written permission of the author only. Saturday, November 16, 2002