Flanked by a gaggle of smartphone-wielding onlookers, Irish farmer Joe Phelan ushered two alpacas down the corridor of a nursing home as beaming residents waited their turn to pet them.
A decade after ditching his office job for farming, 64-year-old “Alpaca Joe” has found a new job for his herd of 71 woolly South American camelids: animal therapy for the elderly and people with additional needs.
“They get to feel them. They look into their big, huge brown eyes, which, you know, just are so relaxing. And they might hear them humming,” Phelan said.
“We work with local schools with their special-needs classes, and the teachers tell us that the impact on the kids is really positive.”
Phelan initially looked into the more traditional types of farming that his family had been involved in for hundreds of years, but said he could not see a way to sustain a living.
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