About
Little Bit About Us
We are now White Creek Alpaca Sanctuary. We are a Forever Home for: former show girls, set-in-their-ways curmudgeons, fiendishly clever tricksters, frisky, athletic crias, and several physically challenged seniors. Many of these alpacas are in their late teens. (Some farms decide the teenagers will be put down and put into the freezer because they are past their fiber or show or breeding prime). As it turns out, many alpacas will live into their 20’s with good care. All these alpacas at White Creek Alpaca Sanctuary are animals that are truly content and enjoying life today!
We have fiber products made from this herd. Nothing goes into a fiber pool. Everything is processed at a mill that specializes in small batches. We have roving for spinning, yarns for knitting or crocheting, one-of-a-kind Felties (copyrighted), rug yarn, hats, scarves, dryerballs and other unique products too. We are currently working with the same mill to create a soil amendment from the fiber scraps…stay tuned! Manure is always available for gardens. Your plants will LOVE it!
With a herd of 19 alpacas, The Sanctuary always has Farm expenses that include daily feed, hay, fans, buckets, dishes. The Vet comes to give shots monthly. In addition, all the alpacas regardless of fiber quality are sheared yearly for their own health. This is because shearing keeps their skin healthy by preventing fungal or bacterial infections that easily grow and fester under long, matted unshorn hair. Since alpacas do not sweat, removing the fiber before summer each year, helps their body stay cooler at night and prevents heat stress or death from overheating during the humid summer days too. This is a necessary cost as well. All donations help to cover the Alpacas daily care, vet expenses, well-being and fun-time with the herd.
Here are several ways you can help: sponsor an Alpaca or the whole herd, join us for an Artisan Guild Event or Local Fair we are set up at, make a donation using our QR code, purchase our products too! All donations are tax deductible!.
The Whys
Why Llamas?
Bonnie first met a llama when she was in 4-H. As an All Star, she was in the group in charge of taking care of the Petting Zoo that was held as part of the Rocky Hill Fair in RI. She got along with the gelding llama who would eat out of her hand. He would periodically stop to spit at the Cottrel boys because they were throwing rocks at him as they walked by, but then he would go back to eating from her hand after the boys left the area… 20 years later, Bonnie moved to another part of the State and started breeding, showing, and selling llamas. Learning to spin was on the bucket list, so, maybe make yarn and sell it? OH, THE GUARD HAIR! It was very expensive to dehair llama and the yarn was just meh as a final product…
Why Alpacas?
An average of 20K and up per show-quality animal seemed to be cost prohibitive on a school teacher’s salary just for making yarn. It meant selling lots of babies and showing too (to sell at high prices). 100 pounds of prime raw fiber in an alpaca’s lifetime, no matter what the up front alpaca cost, and then that fiber could be turned into costly yarn... A better way? Unregistered, (or rescued for free from the guy up the street because he put “extra” alpacas in the freezer! I’ve learned that they mourn their dead. So, horrible!!! I choose not to eat). Bonnie went to look at free alpacas 1st. This tiny female, with a huge soul, came up and kissed Bonnie on the lips. HOOKED on Alpacas she became, and Bonnie named her Murex. Turns out she was pregnant, so bebe Coral was born. Both had nice fiber that could be spun into some nice yarn . And, YES, Bonnie now spins yarn too! She later bought 3 non-show quality girls from a broker to grow the fiber herd… Moving from RI to SC was accomplished in 2024 and The Herd is now up to 19 ( including the 8 adoptions and several babies too).