Llama Rescue Day

I took a day off from Imaging on Thursday to go with about 20 other Cornell vet students out to the Northeast Llama Rescue in Middleburgh, NY (in Schoharie county, west of the Albany area, so...far away) to help with some basic care of 100 llamas that had been rescued as part of an animal welfare seizure in Montana.  Over 600 llamas had been rescued from the Montana farm, and 100 of them were shipped out to Wes Laraway at Red Maple Farm, home of the Northeast Llama Rescue.  All 100 were males, and they were all supposed to be castrated (although we found 6 that weren't...more on that in a bit), so that should have made our jobs a little easier--no pregnancy checks, at least!

Sarrah, John, and me wrangling llamas

All the llamas were rounded up in the barn when we got there, and after a quick tour of the farm (which also houses rescued and rehabilitating wildlife as the NY Wildlife Rescue Center, and rescued farm animals as Barnyard Sancuary), we got down to business.  We teamed up and wrangled the llamas into pens, gave them somewhat cursory physical exams, and did routine vaccines, microchipping, and some fecal sampling.  The range that we saw in terms of their overall condition and well being was really broad--from some chubby, cheeky guys to sadly emaciated boys trailing matted fiber almost down to the ground.  There were also a few that turned out to not have been castrated, so we got to do standing castrations on those--one student per testicle!

LlamaFACE

Some of the llamas were super friendly and even liked having their faces scratched and petted, confirming my suspicions that llamas, while not as adorable as alpacas, have generally superior personalities.  And that we need one for our backyard.

The operation at Red Maple Farm was really interesting and the setting was beautiful...it was a little bit like the farm of folklore with one of every animal you can imagine--even peacocks and bobcats!  Wes has a website for all of his rescues, where you can take a look at some of his animals, including the rescued llamas and some pictures of our day on the farm: http://redmaplefarm.net/