A magical Alpaca experience for Brackley Care Home residents

Shirley Bettinson, who runs TOFT Alpaca Stud, near Rugby, Warwickshire recently brought three of her young male alpacas to the Kingsley Healthcare home for a one-on-one experience with their residents. The home’s Customer Relations Manager Julie Wilson said: “It was wonderful to see these beautiful animals up close and to be able to touch and stroke them and to learn more about them.”

Mrs Bettinson, who has been breeding alpacas with her husband for almost 25 years and currently has 130 alpacas on their farm, said the wonderful fleece of the animals was the first motivation for people to own them. However, over the years, the potential of this sociable animal for all kinds of activities, from alpaca walks to school and care home visits, was discovered and these are now popular animals for people of all ages to purchase as pets and to keep their lawans down as they are relatively easy to look after.

She said: "The alpacas are very gentle, social creatures and love the attention and it was wonderful to see the pleasure that they brought the Brackley residents which was evident by the big smiles on their faces and the interest that they took in these animals.

"They are very quiet and very clean animals so are perfect for animal therapy and can have an amazing calming effect."