Alpacas are increasingly farmed for luxury fiber globally, with welfare standards varying enormously from small artisan herds to large commercial operations with documented welfare failures.
Alpacas in commercial fiber operations face welfare risks during shearing including restraint injury, rough handling, and cold stress after removal of their fiber coat before temperatures are appropriate. Poor body condition scoring — allowing animals to become significantly underweight — is documented in some Peruvian operations. As with cashmere and mohair, the luxury price point of alpaca fiber means the economic barrier to welfare improvement is low. Consumer pressure and third-party certification requirements represent the most effective levers for improvement in a geographically concentrated supply chain.