Mysterious Attack On Kentucky Farm Leaves 6 Llamas Dead

Six llamas died while seven others were injured on a farm in Louisville, Kentucky.

The incident took place early Monday morning at the Louisville Llama Farm on Schuff Lane near Beargrass Creek. People living close to the farm told investigators that they heard what sounded like a fight between animals.

The farm was owned by Caroline Willette and her husband Dale Hill. She said she woke up around 7:30 a.m. EST and found blood and tufts of wool spread around the barn and her property. On further inspection, she found five of the llamas dead and seven others injured. The dead llamas had bite marks behind their ears and by their flanks. One of the injured llamas was so severely hurt that it had to be put down, the Courier-Journal reported. A fence near the front of the farm’s property was broken and covered in blood after one of the llamas tried to run away. The estimated cost of damage was at least $10,000.

An investigation was going on regarding the mysterious attack. The investigators are unsure about what killed the animals.

A spokeswoman for the Louisville Metro Animal Services (LMAS) said the agency was investigating the deaths and that they were going door to door to see if any neighbors heard or saw anything. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Louisville Zoo said this kind of situation was an unusual one.

While the neighbors speculated the coyotes were responsible, the LMAS believed it could be a large animal. However, Willette said llamas were good at defending themselves and the ones died were guard llamas, one of them even weighing 500 pounds.

Hill, who runs the farm with her, said the attack was the deadliest the couple has seen since they started running their farm 18 years ago.

“They’re all guard llamas. I mean, a lot of people have one or two llamas because that’s all it takes to protect a herd. We have a whole herd of guard llamas. You think they’d be able to protect themselves,” Hill said.

Having had the llamas for close to two decades, Willette had named all of them. One of them was born on Halloween and was called “Boo” while another one was called “No White” which, Willette explained was a pun on Snow White. Both Boo and No White were killed Monday.

The couple treated the Llamas like their family. “I know they are just livestock. But these were my babies,” Willette said.

In December 2018, Craig Hayes, found his llama, named Llrenzo, dead with gunshot wounds. Hayes, offered a reward of $500 cash to anyone who had any information about what happened to his llama. He said he wasn’t sure if someone thought Llrenzo, a guard llama that protected his cattle, was a deer and shot it.

In 2015, three men from Charlotte, North Carolina, were arrested after they were found guilty of mutilating a llama, stabbing it several times and cutting its body in half. The llama was ten years old and half of its body was found in a pond in Borderline Farms and the remaining on a dirt path nearby. The president of the farm, Tammy Limer, said the llama died while trying to protect the other llamas and alpacas.