Shearing the Alpacas

A scream came from the sheering shed, much like that you would imagine from a scene at midnight with a full moon from a horror thriller. But this was mid day and not a movie and the scream came from a protesting alpaca. Protesting due to the fact that it was about to have a hair cut.

Shearing an alpaca requires a different technique than that of the regular sheep. They are obviously much bigger and feisty than their short neck cousin.

It takes two to manipulate an alpaca, after they are selected from the pen they are brought into the shearing stand and taken down onto there stomach with there four legs splayed. Their front and back legs are secured to anchor points to their front and rear respectively much like one of the torture devices that stretches the body. One man then holds down the head while the other goes to work with the clippers. The clippers run down the side of the body and down the rear legs, once one side is done the alpaca is flipped over for the other side, lastly the face and neck are clipped. Toe nails are clipped and they are then given a couple of shots Vaccine/Vitamins. Where as they come in looking like a fluffy bear they exit looking like an alien.