Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 26, 1990 TAG: 9003262050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID REED THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Harry Mollin of Calloway paraded his prize stud, Fernando Llama, around makeshift pens at Virginia Tech's veterinary school and bragged about what marvelous animals these cousins of the camel are.
"They are very gentle and easy to get along with," said Mollin, one of about 100 people attending the second annual conference organized by the Llama Association of Mid-Atlantic States, or LAMAS.
"They are very inquisitive, but aloof, somewhat like cats," Mollin said.
There are 22,000 registered llamas and about another 20,000 unregistered llamas in the United States, mostly in the West, according to the International Llama Association.
George Peoples of Roanoke said there were only five llama breeders in Virginia when he bought his first llama in December 1987. Now there are 17 registered breeders, three expedition outfitters that use llamas and scores of owners throughout the state.
The drawback is their expense - $600 and up for males and $6,000 and up for females.
Llamas originally were bred as pack animals in South America's Andes Mountains. They also provided wool, meat, hide for shelter, manure pellets for fuel and offerings to the gods.
They cluck and whistle to their young. They hum - and they spit.
"Spit Happens," said the T-shirt of one of the llama owners at the regional conference.
But the owners and veterinarians said llamas only spit when they are fighting, diverting annoying suitors or protecting their territory.
"They're about the best pack animal you can have," said Brad Heck, an outfitter from Wyoming attending the conference.
by CNB