Help Eric Sustain His Alpaca Sanctuary

My friend Eric Johnson (a military veteran and 20-year volunteer fire fighter and EMT) has been rescuing alpacas for the past ten years. The nearly three dozen alpacas that live on his property in central Maine have come from all over New England (USA), from heartbreaking and cruel conditions.

Like many of us who love and rescue animals, Eric's heart is larger than his bank account. Although Eric works multiple jobs, the expense of running the rescue has outstripped resources due to a complicated health battle his wife has been dealing with in the past year and a half.

Eric and his wife hope that roughly ten months from now they will again be a two-income home and he can focus on finishing a much-needed barn for the alpacas. In the meantime, he needs gap funding for hay and grain.

Just to give you an idea of what their expenses are, I asked Eric what it will cost to feed these animals for the next ten months and he said hay will cost $9800 and grain another $4200. He has just paid an electric bill of $1600 and expects to spend another $9000 on electricity in the next ten months. (Since the animals don't have a traditional barn, he relies heavily on heat lamps in the winter.) He has a bill for veterinary care of $8,000 and next week he will incur a shearing bill of roughly $2,000.

Plug their address (30 Church Road in Readfield, Maine) into Google and you will see the female alpacas on the left side of the property and the males on the right. Eric hopes to eventually move the animals to the rear of the property, where there is much more room for them to graze.

Please consider making a donation, however small, to help Eric keep this bonded herd together. Funds will be passed through one of my accounts and then handed directly to Eric in full. I'm the monkey in the middle due to logistical hurdles.