Apparently a few years back the federal gov decided to start encouraging Alpaca farming. Don't know why or how they went about it, but it created a large boom in Alpacas. However, over time it was discovered by new farmers that they produce less wool than sheep, and were just uneconomical to raise as a result. Overnight the price of Alpacas crashed, to the point where farmers were giving whole herds of the animals away.

That is in part how this photo came to be. While in Tennessee we visited an Alpaca rescue where you could interact with them, walk them, etc. Had about a dozen of the animals.