Want to save or rescue a llama?
Some people want to save money and "rescue" a cheap or free llama. The intentions are great, and the reality is ugly.
We're all for llama rescue — but when the humans go about it the wrong way, the end result is often just as bad or worse for the llamas as whatever mess they're currently in.
Realize that some llamas aren't in any peril at all. The sellers may not care too much where the llama is going, but the llama is being provided with the basics. Taking in such llamas is not rescue; that's encouraging and enabling people who shouldn't be breeding.
Also, be VERY careful when looking for rescued llamas to adopt — some "rescue" organizations and individuals are not the genuine article (both for llamas and for other species). We avidly support and recommend llama rescue, but please be aware that a front of "rescue" can be used to "dress up" what is actually a profitable baby mill or "flipping" operation.
As for those llamas who are at some kind of risk, the benefits to you and to the llama are not as clear-cut as they may appear. Understand that just because you can get a louse-ridden, ill-kempt, ungroomed, and parasitized llama with no guarantee from the auction or an ad in your local "penny saver" for free or next to nothing doesn't mean that you are getting a deal — or that the llama is "lucky" to be "saved".
If saving money is important, understand that you're actually getting the best financial deal on post-rescue llamas from experienced, bona-fide rescuers, and so are the llamas — experienced llama caretakers are much better able and equipped to diagnose, handle, quarantine, and train those auction and "penny saver" llamas than most people, and certainly they'll do a better job than people new to llamas (the auction and "penny saver" llamas who find themselves in the hands of newbies can and do pay for newbie "good intentions" with their lives).
Also be warned that recently rescued "calm and gentle" llamas with health problems almost always turn out to be very wild if they can be returned to health. Rehabilitating these llamas — both health and training — isn't for newbies, period. Adopting such llamas post-rescue means you can know what their true disposition is.
You ARE helping llama rescue and supporting responsible llama stewardship whenever you buy a relocated or companion llama from any of the other people who genuinely make rescue, relocation, and/or rehabilitation a priority in their lives.
No one who rescues llamas can help any more llamas in need ... until someone makes room for another by providing a permanent home to a llama who has already been taken in, nursed back to health, and given remedial trainin as needed.
We do occasionally have companion llamas available from hardship relocations or for other reasons. Because we've put a lot of our own money into rescue, relocation, and rehabilitation, we do ask a fair (but not high-end) price for these llamas ... to help defray costs from the many llamas we assist whose expenses far exceed what we get back (if we even get anything back ... ).
OK, we DO understand — accepting a post-rescue llama or adopting an already-rescued llama is not as dramatic a story or compelling idea as first-person, direct rescue. But what's more important — being a good "fit" for a llama, truly doing right by one lucky llama, or having a story you can tell? (Hint — you can make up the last one, but you can't fake the first two.)
go back to The Fine Print