Do people eat alpacas?

Yes, in parts of South America, alpacas and llamas have been used as a source of meat and skins for thousands of years.

Currently, in Australia, alpacas are bred predominantly for the beautiful, soft fleece (wool) they produce. There are alpacas being bred for meat and restaurants that offer it on their menus.

Just as meat from cattle is called beef and deer is venison, the term being used for alpaca meat in Australia currently is La Viande.

Here at Intrepid Alpacas we are vegetarians, so have not tasted alpaca meat, but apparently it is quite a lean meat with a taste described as similar to sweet lamb.

As time goes on and the number of alpacas increases, there may be a market for alpaca meat (and hides) as well as for fibre. Alpacas breed so slowly, however, that it will probably take some time for there to be enough alpacas to supply a meat industry.

I also believe that Australians as a whole are reluctant to explore meat that is not the traditional beef, lamb or chicken and changing this attitude could take some doing.

We think our alpacas are much more trusting and friendly towards us than they were before we gave up eating meat. I think they can somehow sense that we are vegetarians and that we will never kill and eat them. (Or perhaps they just figure we would've eaten them already by now if we were going to!)