A new arrival at the sanctuary saved from slaughter

During winter 2024, the sanctuary saved this white three year old llama from slaughter. We were not informed that he was on his way to us until a few hours prior to his arrival. He is from a large herd in Scotland, where he was unhandled and left to roam in a mixed sex herd. Unfortunately this meant that he was bullied by the more dominant males, who would pin him in a corner and attack him.

To make matters worse, at some stage someone attempted to lasso (!) this poor boy, and in the resulting struggle his leg was broken. This either went unnoticed at the time or was untreated due to the nervous nature of the llama, whereby it is difficult to get close enough to him, let alone inspect health issues. The leg has since healed, but set irregularly, leaving him with a permanent limp.

Aside from the limp, he is in excellent health. He gets around without issue, and can walk and run admirably. We are advised that he has an excellent natural worm immunity. As can be seen in the pictures, it is unlikely that he has ever been sheared, and fibre can literally be pulled from his fleece. He is extremely nervous around people, so is not a big fan of being brushed. Consequently we are working on building up trust so that we can get his fleece into better shape. He will likely need a full shear in the Spring.

This llama was initially rehomed from Scotland to north England, where his new owner intended to use him as part of a trekking herd for the public to take on walks. However due to his limp and untrusting nature around humans, this was not possible. A new home was sought but was not forthcoming. In desperation the owner booked a vet to put the llama to sleep. When this situation became clear to us at the sanctuary, we offered at the eleventh hour to rehome and care for the llama, as we could not in good conscience stand by whilst a healthy young llama was slaughtered just because no one was willing to give it a home.

We have never encountered such a nervous llama before in any of our previous rehoming cases. Whilst it is normal for rehomed llamas to generally be untrusting of new humans, this particular case was unusual in that the llama was also extremely nervous of our other llamas. He was initially quarantined for biosecurity purposes and to allow him to become familiar with his new environment, but we gave him visibility of other llamas in the neighbouring fields so that he could get used to them.

However, once his quarantine period was complete and he was allowed to mingle with the rest of the herd, he avoided all the other llamas and stayed as far away as possible. Even at breakfast time, when all the llamas come into a large feeding area, he refused to venture close, and for several weeks we had to feed him separately such was his fear of the others. We believe this unusual level of nervousness was a result of the repeat attacks he endured in Scotland by his previous field mates.

After around a month he eventually became more confident around the other llamas and is now generally happy to be in their vicinity, although it is clear he is still somewhat aloof and this potentially will never improve given his background. Whilst his interactions with other llamas have improved, he remains very nervous around people - again most likely as a result of his previous rough handling and broken leg. The only way to interact with this llama is to coral him into a catch pen.

We are conducting such exercises sparingly and infrequently, as we want to build trust with him at his own pace. This may potentially never improve, and if so that is okay - he can live with us as long as he likes unbothered by people. However, we do need to improve his trust to a level where we can inspect him and handle him for any medical treatments, shearing etc. But this will be a very gradual process, and we will work at the llama’s speed - any it will not be set by any human.

The llama does not currently have a name, and we plan to run a naming competition soon so keep an eye on our social media channels if you wish to participate.