R. Richard
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Comment Requested
We need expert comment here. Whazzat? Of course from Evil Alpaca! Who else?
Microchips Counter Andes Alpaca Smuggling
By MAURICIO GIL, Associated Press Writer
PUNO, Peru - Peruvian alpaca herders are turning to technology to thwart a growing problem of the high Andes Mountains: the smuggling of prize-winning, wool-producing alpacas to neighboring countries.
An association of alpaca farmers is surgically implanting microchips into hundreds of alpacas as part of an effort to reduce illegal transport of the animals. A herd of 700 Alpacas had microchips implanted in their neck muscles beneath their ears on Friday in the high plains of Peru near the town of Nunoz, about 540 miles southeast of Lima.
The program, costing $5,000, is sponsored by Peru's National Council of South American Cameloids and is designed to create a genetic registry of the animals as well as identify beasts that have been smuggled out of the country for sale.
The microchips, which are about the size of a pencil eraser, include genetic information about each alpaca and can be read by hand-held scanners.
Alpacas — along with related llamas — are native to South America's Andes Mountains, but are increasingly prized by herders in other parts of the world for their superb wool, said to be softer and warmer than sheep's wool.
More than 3 million of the animals are in Peru, more than half in the region around Puno, which sits at an elevation of 12,570 feet above sea level near the Bolivian border.
To protect the national stock, Peruvian law prohibits the exportation of alpacas that win pedigrees at regional Andean agricultural fairs. Since 1997, Peru has exported only 3,308 alpacas, according to the council. Most are bought as pets, but countries like Australia and New Zealand have been purchasing them for their wool industries.
As a result of the limited number available from Peru, Bolivia and Chile are the source of most alpacas sold to countries abroad — and are the avenue to world markets for Peruvian alpaca smugglers.
"While there is poverty in the region and no market (to sell the animals) it is certain people will be looking to smuggle them," council president Wilder Trejos said.
The council is in discussions with the government of Chile about a program to retrieve smuggled alpacas from that country. Planning also has begun for program that would tag the alpacas with devices to track them by satellite, if necessary, but funding is needed to get it started, Trejos said.
Solving the smuggling problem, however, will take more than simply locating alpacas, Trejos said.
"We have to create a suitable and safe market in which the farmers have ability of buy and sell and provide better conditions of life for the herders," he said.
We need expert comment here. Whazzat? Of course from Evil Alpaca! Who else?
Microchips Counter Andes Alpaca Smuggling
By MAURICIO GIL, Associated Press Writer
PUNO, Peru - Peruvian alpaca herders are turning to technology to thwart a growing problem of the high Andes Mountains: the smuggling of prize-winning, wool-producing alpacas to neighboring countries.
An association of alpaca farmers is surgically implanting microchips into hundreds of alpacas as part of an effort to reduce illegal transport of the animals. A herd of 700 Alpacas had microchips implanted in their neck muscles beneath their ears on Friday in the high plains of Peru near the town of Nunoz, about 540 miles southeast of Lima.
The program, costing $5,000, is sponsored by Peru's National Council of South American Cameloids and is designed to create a genetic registry of the animals as well as identify beasts that have been smuggled out of the country for sale.
The microchips, which are about the size of a pencil eraser, include genetic information about each alpaca and can be read by hand-held scanners.
Alpacas — along with related llamas — are native to South America's Andes Mountains, but are increasingly prized by herders in other parts of the world for their superb wool, said to be softer and warmer than sheep's wool.
More than 3 million of the animals are in Peru, more than half in the region around Puno, which sits at an elevation of 12,570 feet above sea level near the Bolivian border.
To protect the national stock, Peruvian law prohibits the exportation of alpacas that win pedigrees at regional Andean agricultural fairs. Since 1997, Peru has exported only 3,308 alpacas, according to the council. Most are bought as pets, but countries like Australia and New Zealand have been purchasing them for their wool industries.
As a result of the limited number available from Peru, Bolivia and Chile are the source of most alpacas sold to countries abroad — and are the avenue to world markets for Peruvian alpaca smugglers.
"While there is poverty in the region and no market (to sell the animals) it is certain people will be looking to smuggle them," council president Wilder Trejos said.
The council is in discussions with the government of Chile about a program to retrieve smuggled alpacas from that country. Planning also has begun for program that would tag the alpacas with devices to track them by satellite, if necessary, but funding is needed to get it started, Trejos said.
Solving the smuggling problem, however, will take more than simply locating alpacas, Trejos said.
"We have to create a suitable and safe market in which the farmers have ability of buy and sell and provide better conditions of life for the herders," he said.
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