Animal control contacted me again about another llama rescue. I know the officer from the previous rescue we just did last month of 28 llamas at 11 Mile Canyon. This, she said, is about the same size herd. The original owner was now deceased for 5 years now and the other family members were not able to care for the llamas. This was a friendly situation, however, since the homeowner was ready and willing to surrender the llamas. First, was to see if they had food and water and if not, to deliver what was needed. This was in December and the temps were hovering around 0 degrees most mornings. It would get colder than that. We had to buy and set up a water tank with a heater so they could drink water and deliver bales of hay. The estimate was 25 llamas and that was exactly how many we ended up collecting, eventually.
Melissa Dernoga volunteered to get some hay, buy a water heater, tank, and deliver it to the llamas. She bought about 15 bales I think and put one or two bales inside their yard. They had 160 acres of rabbit brush mostly. I was so glad she lived within an hours drive to the rescue site. 

It would be a couple of weeks before we could go round up the llamas. We would need three trailers and three trucks to carry all the llamas to a sanctuary. Once we arrived and saw them, there were males, females, and crias. It was easy to walk among them, they were very calm and unafraid. We set up Robin Benton's trailer with grain near by and two different types of hay. and surrounded the trailer, grain, hay and water with a corral with a wide opening for them to enter. The team included myself, Frank, my husband, Jodi Addis, Robin Benton, Baily Nelson, and Andy Petrick. We had a good group of llama savvy people. This was Jodi's first llama rescue. 

While we waited patently in the early morning, in our trucks out of the way of the corral opening, They all started meandering towards the corral area. they got within feet and all the sudden, the large black male alarmed. Of course they all went running to the other side of the 160 acre property. It was fairly flat (unlike 11 Mile Canyon) so we could generally see where they were - if sometimes we stood on top of the truck. We discovered the source of the alarm were some herding guard dogs that were protecting their flock of sheep across the road. This was frustrating as we had no control over the dogs other than to watch the road and try to keep them from scaring the llamas. Our corral was set up by the house which was next the road and we were not about to reset everything up. We had used as many panels as we could carry on our trailers - something like 20 panels - so that we could make a large enough corral that they would not shy away from it. It can't look like a trap or they would not enter. 

We only had Andy for one day and we knew loading up the llamas could take some man power so we just kept hoping we would get the llamas to come back to the corral voluntarily. It seemed like they would come in so close and then the same large black male would always alarm and then they would all run off. We waited hours in between expecting they would get thristy or want the food. The trailer and hay set up had been there for a week for them to get accustomed to it but it seems they never did get used to it. We observed them eating snow to hydrate out in the field rather than come to the warm water trough. Maybe they were afraid of the owners dog in the house as well. But generally, the owner and his dog were very still and quiet. They cooperated and did all that we could ask for.  

Our efforts all day waiting for the llamas to go into the large corralled area for food or water was in vain. We had high hopes for the next morning that they would come in and instead, the main male alarmed again and they all ran off. Frank told Jodi, "If we don't get them now, we aren't getting them." Andy had to go home so we were down a man and we had time pressures of our own now. 
Jodi headed out to the end of the field where the llamas were and started very gently herding them - very slowly- and very casually. She took the lead for the rescue operation at this point and we followed all her instructions. Jodi has experience with herding dogs and we were trying to be good herd dogs. Frank and Bailey were by the house and while reception was spotty, I hoped they would see what was happening and assist once we got them close to the pen. 

Credit and Thanks to Robin Benton and her 4H students who assembled this informational paper.

Thanks to the cooperative effort of volunteers, law enforcement, Parks and Wildlife, and the State of Colorado, 22 llamas were successfully rescued from starvation and neglect and have been moved to pre-screened homes to receive veterinary attention and care. 

It began with an email requesting help from the County Sheriff’s Office to F.E. Baxter, Co-Founder/Treasurer of Southwest Llama Rescue (SWLR), on October 3. A follow-up call came to me from the Colorado Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Protection Lead Investigator/Coordinator on Thursday October 6. The investigator asked if SWLR could assist with a case where they were serving a warrant and seizing llamas. The estimate was 20 llamas that needed a place to go. Without hesitation, I said, “yes, definitely. I don’t yet know where we will put them, but we will figure it out.” But they weren’t just looking for a commitment, they were ready to go that Sunday, October 9th – the date for the warrant to be served. This was a short notice emergency!

Having a small network in Colorado was lucky and imperative. Robin Benton is my go-to, so I was relieved that she was available. Also, Eric Gustafson, another SWLR volunteer, was quick to take a personal day from his demanding work schedule to help these llamas in need. Between the three of us (and our companions), we could load 20 llamas into our three trailers. I called Ingrid Thompson for a location to temporarily house the llamas. I had met her at another llama roundup earlier this summer. Ingrid and Duane Snader of Cloverleaf Farms West (CFW) agreed without hesitation to take the llamas temporarily. The had some space that we could separate males from females; so, I was so relieved that they volunteered to help us. None of us could have taken in these many llamas! Frank, my husband, was also recruited. He came mainly to keep me in check and to assist with some heavy panel lifting and setup for the llama roundup and his creative, calm, and thoughtful perspective is always a great benefit in the sometimes-chaotic atmosphere of a wild llama rescue.

Frank and I headed up to Colorado on Friday to stay in Pueblo and prepare for the event. All this was happening while I was coordinating a llama adoption process long distance in Grand Junction. Alexis Knight who with Kathleen Knight has been fostering and training two male llamas covered for me and did a wonderful job finding a candidate, reviewing facilities, and assisting with the overall adoption and successful transfer. Danielle Yahn, the new owner, is also now another potential volunteer in Grand Junction.
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The field team met 0900 Sunday in the parking lot at 11 Mile office for a briefing. We heard about the owner’s property who was being served – he was not home, gratefully, so there was no confrontation. On the team were State, County, and Park officers. Some were armed for the situation. We all signed a sheet as participants with our contact information. Eric also brought his daughter Lena and her friend Michaela who were very helpful.

​The day before, the wonderful Park Officer rounded up five of the roaming llamas penned them at the 11 Mile Park office. There were other llamas at large, around the property as far as a mile away, to go look for. The Colorado State Animal Control had a plan to split up the team: the state and county officers were going to the property to serve the warrant and take evidence for the investigation, and SWLR was to go with the 11 Mile Park officer, find a place to put our panels up, and capture the llamas that were roaming off the property. One of the males had advanced aberrant behavior syndrome (ABS) (aka novice handler syndrome) and was labeled as Aggressive Llama in the photos we got from animal control. It was said that he was certainly bottle fed. The 11 Mile Park officer had a long history with him and named him Carl after the popular and violent llama in the cartoon, ‘Llamas with Hats’. The issues with this llama herd have gone on for 10 years. Carl was known to chase park goers, knock them down (I saw a video) and not let fishermen out of the water. He was known to put his head in the window of cars and bite people. He was a serious threat to the public and the plan was to dispatch him, sadly. We had no one who could take Carl – he was not borderline, he was advanced ABS, the result of hand feeding or coddling llamas and not enforcing personal space. He was the first llama that we saw when we followed the Park officer and the game warden into the hills.

​We were off-roading with our trailers about a mile from the property. With binoculars, we also saw a small herd of about 5 llamas about 100 yards away from Carl. The llamas were scattered over more than a mile of open land, with access to hundreds of acres of open space. Most private fencing in the area is relatively low barbed wire, easy for many llamas to jump. We were challenged by the enormous size of the landscape for this roundup effort. The other llamas in the vicinity came running to Carl (a surprise to to some but llamas are bonded and curious). The officer got out hay and tried to set up panels while the llamas were eating in hopes of containing them for us. The females were almost penned with the two officers using a rope for herding them when a male llama was approaching and stepped on a strand of barbed wire. He panicked and ran, wrapping the barbed wire even more around him. All these llamas then ran, giving rope burn to our park officer.

The llamas were scattered over more than a mile of open land, with access to hundreds of acres of  open space. Most private fencing in the area is relatively low barbed wire, easy for many llamas to jump. We were challenged by the enormous size of the landscape for this roundup effort. 

The opening of the property is where the officers had staged their trucks and trailer so when the loose llamas approached, they did not want to enter. it's always a challenge when multiple agencies and people are trying to organize an effort to catch animals without time for more pre-planning, and an agreement on who will lead the effort. Everyone sincerely wants to help but there were multiple authorities, and the plan came together as it evolved.

State Animal Control had 10 panels 5.5 ft. high and 12 foot long and had them set up except one side being 4-strand wire fencing that we needed to re-enforce with my panels to prevent escape. Two large males kept trying to come in but with human bodies everywhere, and us trying to set up the panels by the entry to completely enclose their corral, it was chaos. Two adult males and an adolescent male were finally corralled. One of these males was aggressive and would charge and rear up. He did not scream or spit but clicked a lot at the crew. I called him borderline ABS.

​I made a comment that the llama people should load these guys which was not meant to insult anyone, but tensions seemed to mount even more, then. The adolescent male then jumped through the fencing back out on the road but we managed to get him back in the property to corral him more securely. We loaded the two males into Eric’s trailer, including Cowboy, the borderline ABS male. The rounding up of the three month-old crias, another adolescent male, and another adult male was stressful as we were on about 10 acres and parts of the fencing was compromised where they could get out, if pressured. Four or five of us tried to do it, but the crias or the other two would squeeze out. I brought out 500 feet of herding tape and finally all nine or so crew worked together to slowly herd the llamas into our large corral. It was a good feeling with everyone working together, for the most part. With everyone’s patience thinning, we did get the five remaining llamas into my trailer successfully. Only two large males, one with barbed wired around him, who I call Tangled, were outside and too spooked to collect. ​

We got the three crias in who were separated from their mothers that were loaded into the officer’s cattle trailer.   We traveled back to the 11 Mile office to get the five llamas waiting there into Robin’s trailer. It was about this time that I heard that there were 18 deceased llamas on that owner’s property, where we just were. This was stunning and sad news that would go into the investigative report about the neglect and cruelty of this case. We were grateful that SWLR was to take the 22 live llamas in their trailers to CFW. An attempt to do some musical trailers from the cattle trailer to Eric’s trailer was not successful. Our State Animal Control Officer generously agreed to drive their cattle trailer to CFW with the 10 llamas (minus the three goats). Then we loaded the 5 waiting llamas at the office juggling them a bit to separate a male into Eric’s trailer from the two more mothers with older crias going with Robin.

​Arriving at CFW, Ingrid and Duane had about an acre of fenced and cross fenced area that we unloaded four trailers of llamas into. Hay and water was enjoyed and the reunion of the crias and mothers was a joy to watch. They were all recuperating and enjoying loving care for two weeks while we received the release form from animal control so we could adopt them to good homes. Ingrid and Duane adopted a mother-cria pair and another three were adopted by a close neighbor. The remaining eleven females and crias were transported to our SWLR sanctuary in Kerrville, TX with F.E. Baxter. Of the remaining llamas, there are 6 males; and Cowboy, is already spoken for. Other than many of the llamas being very thin, some needing shearing, and intestinal parasites. We were very lucky to get them when we did. The remaining two are out there and need to be rescued before winter comes. Two failed attempts, but we are still going to keep trying.
The cost, time, equipment and other resources like feed that went into this rescue was provided by volunteers. We rely on volunteers and donations to make a difference in the lives of these creatures often saving them from starvation as in this case. To contribute to Southwest Llama Rescue to continue our efforts, donations can be made by going to www.southwestllamarescue.org.