Berserk Llama Syndrome

Watch out for berserk llamas!:

Terrebonne resident Nancy Campbell was out for a neighborhood jog Monday night when her 8-year-old daughter, who was riding a bike ahead of her, warned that a brown llama was approaching from behind.

“(Nancy) had barely turned around to face it before it knocked her down,” said Campbell’s husband, Bill.

The llama stomped its feet, spit, bared its teeth and bit her. It eventually took five people to subdue the animal described by state police as brown, hairy and aggressive.

The llama suffered from a rare behavioral problem called “berserk llama syndrome,” veterinarians treating the animal said Wednesday. An Oregon State Police log said the llama escaped five days earlier from its owner’s fenced yard in north Terrebonne. With the owner’s permission, veterinarians euthanized it Tuesday.

...By the time Humane Society of Redmond staff made it to the scene to take the animal, State Humane Agent Carl Quigley said five people were struggling to hold the 5-foot-5-inch, 250-pound animal down. It took four people to carry him into the horse trailer.

...Carly is in shock from witnessing her mother’s attack, he added, and has been having nightmares.

...The llama was not well, according to veterinarians.

“We had to heavily sedate him before we could even euthanize him,” said Dr. Rachel Eaton, a mobile vet specializing in llamas and alpacas who was called to treat the Terrebonne llama.

Eaton said berserk llama syndrome typically affects uncastrated llamas by the time they hit puberty. While no one knows for sure why it happens, the disease is most likely to occur in llamas that were handled too much as babies, Eaton said. It makes the pack animals attach to humans instead of their herd.

“It’s really an unfortunate thing,” she said. “A lot of people raised them and cuddled with them — the llama is their best friend. But they still can become quite dangerous.”

Berserk llamas can be aggressive and scary, she said, and have been known to maul people. Whereas a normal llama would curiously and timidly approach someone standing near its fence, a berserk llama would charge at the intruder, Eaton said.

“They just click and they will attack and hurt people,” Eaton said, adding that in her 10 years practicing, she’s put down four berserk llamas in Central Oregon.

“Llamas are usually like cats — they are curious, but like to keep their distance,” she said. “But the second it turns and comes after you and starts biting, you know it’s trouble.”

...Berserk llama disease is rare, and 99 percent of pet llamas let loose wouldn’t go on an aggressive rampage, Eaton said.

“People who have llamas or who live next door to llamas shouldn’t be worried,” she said. “Llamas are very independent and curious. In general, they are very standoffish.”