In the interest of truth telling, we did it! Those of us who were in the magical world of llamas fifteen or twenty years ago did a lot of damage. Oh, believe me, we never intended to, with the possible exception of a few money grubbing individuals, but it seems to have happened in any case. Had breeding been more a matter of selectivity and less a matter of opportunity perhaps we wouldn't be faced with the unending need for mis-treated and neglected llamas to be rescued. The idea of any female with a uterus that worked, no matter what defects she might have or pass along being worth $12,000 was indeed heady! Now that's the hard edge of the problem and, with out a doubt, most of us didn't fit in that category, but I feel like there's not one of us who couldn't done a little more, a little sooner. It's not like we weren't aware that it would be an issue down the road, but I'll always wonder if we'd just tried a little harder, and done it a little sooner, maybe the outcome wouldn't have been so devastating!

I wonder how many of the rescue llamas are a direct result of that little "get rich quick scheme"! The progeny of this breeding spree are the very llamas that make up the largest part of the rescue llamas. They weren't bred selectively, and they emerged with a plethora of defects, physical and emotional or mental! They, for the most part will never be what a llama should be! It's so sad, the llamas are the ones who are paying the greatest price, but many of us who got into llamas with the hope and dream of making a living doing something we loved and believe in were destroyed financially, and many more of us simply lost heart. We watched our hopes and dreams crumble because of the unbridled greed and lack of character of a few of us.

The time has come, in the llama industry, when we need to define ourselves by our character, not by the bottom line on our cash balance.

Joyfully, to me, it seems like the people who have gotten into llamas over the last few years have done so for all the right reasons! With the notable exclusion of a select group of financially motivated breeders, who are preparing to go that last mile down the road to the destruction of the breed. It is being done simply in order to enable them to squeeze the last penny of profit out of llamas by irresponsibly cross-breeding llamas and alpacas in order to create a false market for a man made cross breed, in all probability this venture will produce 5 or 10 mutts, for every acceptable "collectable" llama they produce!

The ultimate tragedy is that, in all likelihood these mutts will fall into the sewers of animal auctions, with the lucky ones being rescued before they are sold for meat or some such horror!

It is a tragedy of almost epic proportion, that there are people lined up to make the same mistake we made before, only this time it's so well planned out that the end result is likely to make the last debacle look like a walk in the park!

I heard all my life how those who don't learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them. It's just so sad that the llamas don't have anything to say about this!

I want to end this particular article with a disclaimer that what's written in the above article is my personal opinion, and no claims are made as to the truth and accuracy of above. This is simply one person's opinion, and not intended in any way to be any sort of official stand or condemnation on the issue.