Two Sampford Courtenay farmers have rescued a group of llamas and guanacos from being slaughtered following the recent death of their owner.

Sam and Gemma Earl from Taw River Dairy rose to the occasion and offered a new home to ten llamas and guanacos, an animal closely related to a llama, when Sam heard through Facebook that they were in danger of being culled after the new owners of the farm found they were unable to care for them.

Gemma said: ‘Sam was travelling down to Cornwall and saw the message on Facebook and stopped in and we ended up with ten of them.

‘The alternative was that they were going to be slaughtered which is a bit of an upsetting thought for anybody really. They’re quite interesting animals - a point of interest for us on the farm.’

Gemma said that the llamas and guanacos, which she described as very ‘deer-like’ and ‘dainty,’ are now in their own ‘well fenced’ field, and despite some early reservations about the cows, they have settled in well.

She added: ‘I think they probably could quite easy escape from anything that wasn’t very well fenced. So we’ve got them in one of our better fenced fields and we’ll get them a shelter sorted, so they’ve got somewhere to keep out the rain during the winter.

‘But our plan is to sort of just keep them keep them out. I think they’ve been kept outside all year round. So they’re well acclimatised to the weather conditions here.’

Though mostly a dairy farm, Sam has shearing experience and so the Taw River Dairy owners expect to take full advantage of the animals’ fur which is known to be especially soft.

The ten new inhabitants of Taw River Dairy are part of a once 133-strong herd which was owned by a Cornish farmer, who passed away in April after contracting covid.

Friends described the llamas and guanacos to Cornwall Live as the farmer’s ‘children’ and was particularly concerned about the fate of his herd following his death.

The farm’s new owners had until September 10 to rehome all the animals and, at the time Sam stepped by, 50 animals were left to rehome.

However, it is now confirmed that the remaining animals have been saved as a Scottish llama sanctuary agreed to offer the any of the remaining animals a home.

Llamas and guanacos are a South American animal closely related to the camel.

Llamas are the domesticated descendent of guanacos and are traditionally used as pack animals and meat.

Llamas in particular are known to be good as livestock guards and are used by some farmers to scare away foxes and other predators from their flocks.

Guanacos are the llama’s wild cousin and the San Diego Zoo estimates that there are only 600,000 animals in the wild today.

They live in the dry open plains or mountains with 90 per cent of them located in Argentina.