The Daily Collegian

Issue date: 5/14/07 Section: News

The Hadley Farm of UMass is home to 19 alpacas who are cared for by the students of the Animal Science department. Alpacas are highly-valued animals that can be sold for $600 to $40,000 because of their easy maintenance and thick fur.

This is the place where the unique alpaca roams. It is just off the road going to the University of Massachusetts that is a city within itself; where the word zoo is used to describe social lives rather than the home of these animals. Here is where students learn veterinary principles, while still able to see the brick of the library and the cement of freshman towers - the intersection of college life and wildlife which seem to be one in the same.

Here is the Hadley Farm, home to the rare alpaca and gateway to the University.

UMass is a school with an infamous reputation, both for partying and for the ensuing riots that erupt after certain sporting events. The school may not be known for its animal science research or its testing on monkeys in Tobin Hall, but it does have a serious and well-developed Animal Studies Program.

The school offers equine and livestock studies and employs 22 faculty members in the Animal Science and Pre-Vet department, where 86 students graduated from it in 2006. UMass was built as an agricultural school in 1863 and the remnants of its natural background are still alive today.

The Hadley Farm seems like any other farm. It has green grass, stables, animal droppings and an enormous American flag hoisted up in the center. It houses animals, has that distinct smell of horses and the sounds of donkey yelps and horse trots reverberate through each barn.

The Hadley Farm, however, has something no other barn has - the nation's first undergraduate Camelid Studies Program. The Camelid (the species name for alpacas) Study at UMass is run by Dr. Stephen Purdy; its goal is to teach undergraduate and graduate students about the veterinary practices for the development of healthy animals. Dr. Purdy is an experienced camelid practitioner and has a vast amount of knowledge about the animals. Students of the Camelid Program are taught hands-on at the farm by Dr. Purdy and get to work with the animals directly.

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