The Llama Sanctuary is looking for sponsors to finance the rehabilitation of four rescued llamas.

Image Credit: Facebook/The Llama Sanctuary

Tappen's Llama Sanctuary has just rescued four llamas and is encouraging sponsors to donate and visitors to come to the sanctuary to help them out on their road to recovery.

The Llama Sanctuary had been working to rescue these llamas for the past eight months and they finally did it just a few days ago. The rescued llamas will now get ready to be rehabilitated and trained to be adopted. For that, the sanctuary will need help from visitors and sponsors.

"The llama sanctuary is open every day for guided tours and visitors can come to see the new llamas; they are useful in the rehabilitation process because llamas will get to see other llamas getting fed treats and interacting with humans in a friendly manner which will help them gain more courage in meeting people," David Chapman of the Llama Sanctuary says.

The llamas had not been taken care of in a very long time, and the sanctuary has some work ahead of them to rehabilitate the animals and get them ready for adoption.

This process will cost them a lot of money and that is why they are hoping for sponsors to donate.

"So now we have one female, which we're pretty sure she's going to be pregnant so we're keeping an eye on her. Then, at least two of them need shearing and two of them are ccara llamas so they don't need shearing, they need grooming, but the other two look a real mess. They also haven't been handled in the past, so we'll have to do training so that we can actually handle them and shear them this spring. The males will also be castrated and need their fighting teeth to be trimmed because we can't have them encountering other llamas in the sanctuary with their fighting teeth," Chapman says.

"The castration is going to be the best part of $500 each and then the feed. We are going to put up a campaign for $5,000 to care for the llamas while they are in the sanctuary."

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Llama Sanctuary

This herd of llamas was first discovered in July of 2023 after a woman spotted one in her field which was a nuisance for her. She called the sanctuary, which could not do much at the time because the llamas were someone else's property.

The owner of the llamas spoke out about what could be done about the animals if they were bothersome which led to two of them dying.

"The owner of the llamas was contacted and he told people that if the llamas were being a nuisance they could shoot them."

The sanctuary then contacted the BC SPCA in hopes of getting help from them to do something, but after an investigation, the organization could not do much.

The sanctuary then learned that the herd had more than one male which was problematic and cause for rescue.

"These particular llamas were acquired by someone who bought a female and a male and let them roam free and get on with it. Another male was eventually born and the problem with this is that when males get about eight to nine months old, the male gets kicked out of the herd, and that's what happened and that one male is the one that was spotted in that woman's field," Chapman says.

"The male tried going back to his herd and defeating the alpha male which led to pretty violent fights; llamas have razor-sharp teeth which they typically use to attack their opponents by castrating them, hamstringing them or getting them by the throat."

Finally, the Llama Sanctuary got news last week they could go forward with the rescue.

"We got a call from somebody who was in close contact with the llamas' owner and told us that the owner was no longer in Canada and this person had permission to move the llamas after two had been shot and one had died giving birth," Chapman says.

"We had to get the paperwork done to get permission to catch the llamas, we asked the BC SPCA to assist us and then went on to catch the llamas. Four of them had been caught in corrals which was of great help and so we arranged everything and went down to catch them and everything went on pretty smoothly."

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Llama Sanctuary

Upon their arrival, the llamas appeared to be dehydrated.

"They drank a tremendous amount of water upon their arrival which is a concern; typically llamas drink half a gallon of water a day and they drank about three gallons of water each," Chapman says.

As the sanctuary keeps an eye on their health, they are getting ready to rehabilitate them and prepare them for adoption.

"They're quite young these llamas, so they are good candidates for rehoming, but what we are looking for is someone who's interested in adopting them who will come out and assist with the training and assist with the llamas so we don't put them into a home where suddenly someone says they can't handle them and tries to get rid of them," Chapman says. "They're not as wild as other llamas we've brought in so we think that someone who is ready to handle them and care for them will find them to be good companions."

Chapman says they were originally told about a herd of eight llamas and can only account for seven so he warns about a potential lone llama in the Southern Okanagan.

To learn more about the sanctuary, visiting hours and where to donate, visit the Llama Sanctuary website here. 

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