Fancy That Alpacas, is an alpaca farm northwest of the Brecon Beacons in Wales, in the United Kingdom. We were called Epoch Alpacas, but we changed our name to reflect more the colours that we now breed ( Appaloosa, Fancy/Multi and Grey) We seek to provide our animals with wonderfully happy lives, so we treat them with the best respect and care. This approach carries through our alpaca management, our rescue animals, and to our animal sculpture business too. This is also why we only sell our animals to the very best homes.
On an upland farm in the Welsh hills, we breed and train our alapcas for health and friendliness, as well as their unusual colours. The conformation and fleece quality of our herd is continually being improved with the selectively breeding our females with studs from highly reputable bloodlines.
Our forty acre farm is predominantly well drained, south facing hill pasture. Our females and males enjoy large shelters, with high quality hay taken from our wildflower meadow and pastures.
With a very low stocking density per acre, our alpacas benefit from high levels of natural parasite control. They are fecal-tested regularly, here onsite, and worming and mite management is carried out with the 2-3 monthly toenail clipping.
We aim to provide animal-focused care, and enjoy giving our animals opportunities for entertainment, dust-baths, hosing-downs, frequent field movements, and beneficial social grouping.
Fancy That Alpacas is run by animal sculptor Tanya Russell and her husband Charles Parkes. Married in 2019, they met at work at the art college in London that Tanya founded in 2000, called The Art Academy. In 2017 they left London together to live in the countryside and sell Tanya’s sculptures.
Alpacas seemed a natural fit with the ethos of their animal-focused art, and Tanya’s vegeterianism (as Alpacas aren’t eaten in the UK). And while our beautiful alpacas are bred for sale, the other animals living at Moelfre are rescues. We have five pigs from Greenacres Rescue Centre, four turkeys who’d originally been intended for Christmas, three goats from a local dairy farm (males are slaughtered after birth), two happy rescue staffies, and a flock of ex-battery chickens.
Tanya has become known over the last 30 years for her life-like animal sculptures. Each is handmade in England and sculpted here in our studio in Wales. Her practice is about our relationships with animals and their welfare and it’s wonderful always looking at and working with a subject that she loves, and for which we have so much inspiration around us. We donate 10% of all the proceeds from our sculpture sales to three charities, The Dogs Trust, the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, and All Creatures Great and Small animal sanctuary.
Charles focuses on the business-side of things, and when he is not selling sculpture or working on the farm he writes interactive fantasy fiction for e-readers, phones and tablets through his US publisher Choice of Games.
