Alpaca herd sell for £17,000 at auction

A herd of Alpacas has been sold for £17,000 at auction in Carlisle.

Pat Bentley was among the first to bring the animals to the UK in the 80s. She retired and sold 47 of them to new owners.

Pat Bentley from Newby, near Penrith, has been breeding Alpacas for over 30 years.

She was one of the first people to bring them into the UK but is now retiring and has sold her herd at Auction.

Pat is pleased with where her alpacas are going:

They're natural home is The Andes mountain range in South America, but over the last three decades alpacas have been popping up all over the Lake District.

In part, that's thanks to Pat Bentley from Newby near Penrith.

In 1983 Pat was one of the first people to bring alpacas into the UK and has been breeding them ever since.

She's retiring now and is putting her remaining alpacas up for auction.

Kim Inglis has been to meet her:

After 30 years an alpaca breeder is packing up her business in Penrith.

Pat Bentley is said to have pioneered the introduction of alpacas in the UK.

An alpaca breeder who pioneered their introduction into the UK is packing up her business after thirty years of breeding them at Newby near Penrith.

Pat Bentley is having her remaining alpacas auctioned at Borderway Mart in Carlisle on the 5th of May.

Inspired by a visit to Peru in the 1970s, at one point Pat had a herd of 200 alpacas.

47 animals are going under the hammer.