Most excellent animals
An alpaca rescued by the Port Angeles-based Olympic Peninsula Alpaca/Llama Rescue looks at the crowd with curiosity during a major gathering of alpaca owners at the Grant County Fairgrounds on Saturday and Sunday. According to Amber Miller, the rescue’s vice president and youth coordinator, about 100 alpacas and llamas need to be rescued every year, mostly because their owners die, get divorced or have another major life change that makes it impossible for them to care for the animals.
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Jean Van Effen stands with an alpaca waiting to be judged during the AlpacaFest competition Saturday morning at the Grant County Fairgrounds.
Michael Gomes, who came to AlpacaFest in Moses Lake all the way from Madera, California, shows off Cygnus, his appaloosa alpaca.
Juan Espinoza, with Salem, Oregon-based Piel Canela Peru, wears an alpaca wool coat, one of many of the fine alpaca wool goods his company imports from Peru.
Rescue alpacas peacefully chew on grass hay during AlpacaFest at the Grant County Fairgrounds on Saturday.
Ichi Kwan, an alpaca rancher from Blaine, leads a pair of alpacas to the show ring at AlpacaFest in the Grant County Fairgrounds’ Ardell Arena on Saturday. “They are just beautiful livestock,” said Kwan, who added she’s been raising them since 2013.
An alpaca as it waits to be shown during AlpacaFest on Saturday.
MOSES LAKE — It was, on the face of it, just another Saturday in which the sounds and smells of agriculture wafted from the Ardell Pavilion at the Grant County Fairgrounds.
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