After three days of heavy snowfall and bone-chilling temperatures, Mateo Mullisaca watches as one of his alpacas falls to the ground in agony on his farm almost 16,400 feet (5,000 meters) high in Peru’s Andes.
“Without water and without food, the weak ones die,” the 62-year-old shepherd says as the animal takes its final breath with vultures lurking nearby.
In this July 10, 2016 photo, Valeria Chuquibanca holds her head as she suffers a headache triggered by the heat reflected from the snow, one day after a heavy snow in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Valeria said that sticking coca leaves near her eyes helps alleviate the pain. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 9, 2016 photo, newborn alpacas that died due to sub-freezing temperatures lay on the ground after being placed there by a villager in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Peru’s government has declared a state of emergency in the southern Andes and promised $3 million in relief. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 11, 2016 photo, Agustin Mayta Condori shows his sick alpaca that he predicted would die the next day due to sub-freezing temperatures in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. The indigenous families that make a living from shearing the fiber earn as little as $1,200 a year. There have been several attempts to give alpaca herders a bigger share of the $150-million industry. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Peru’s government has declared a state of emergency in the southern Andes and promised $3 million in relief amid a bitter cold snap that has killed 50,000 alpacas. Authorities fear that if the mercury continues to hit minus 9 Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius) as many as 300,000 camelids could die, devastating the largely indigenous families who raise them.
Mullisaca, who last year lost about a fifth of his herd of 150 animals, says promised food and corrals haven’t arrived in large enough numbers to protect them from the cold. Sheep, the only other animal that can survive on the grassland plateaus, are also dying in large numbers as evidenced by Mullisaca’s loss the night before of five lambs a few hours after entering the world.
In this July 8, 2016 photo, icicles hang from the roof of an adobe home in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru, where farmers raise alpacas and sheep for their wool. Every winter freeze destroys the tough grasslands the animals feed on and almost no crops can survive in the nutrient-poor soil. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 9, 2016 photo, Cecilia Callo Mamani laughs as her neighbors joke about her sunglasses in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Mamani said she wears them to protect her eyes from the snow’s strong reflection. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 9, 2016 photo, children play after school in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Two months into the cold season an estimated 14,000 children in the Andes have suffered from respiratory illnesses and 105 died, according to government figures. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 9, 2016 photo, a student waits for class to start at his public school in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Due to the recent sub-freezing temperatures, the start of the school day has been delayed to 9am. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 10, 2016 photo, camelid breeders ride in the back of a pick-up tuck with cooking gas and oats for their alpacas and sheep, as they return to their village of San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. The passengers got the 30 minute ride from the nearest town of Cambria to their town from a friend since they don’t own their own vehicle, the case of most locals. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 11, 2016 photo, villagers eat dinner at the town’s only general store in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Peru is the world’s largest producer of alpaca wool, and the rural hamlets in this area is where the white-furred alpacas have been raised for centuries. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 11, 2016 photo, Vicentina Javier rests inside a relative’s adobe home as she recuperates from a respiratory illness in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Authorities relocated Vicentina, 77, from her home to this village because she was in a even more sparsely populated area where there’s no doctor nearby. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Peru is the world’s largest producer of alpaca wool, an almost silky natural fiber coveted by the world’s top designers, and has about 4 million of the camelids. But in stark contrast to the high prices charged by the likes of Armani and Gucci is the daily struggle against the elements and poverty by the thousands of shepherds whose livelihood depends on the trade.
The high-altitude rural hamlets where alpacas have been raised for centuries are among the most-deprived in Peru. The more than 120,000 families that make a living from shearing the soft, featherweight fiber earn as little as $1,200 a year, which works out to less than half of Peru’s minimum wage.
Every alpaca that dies represents a major financial loss, explains Isaac Caparo, a veterinarian who specializes in camelids. Each animal’s wool can be sheared only once a year and a female gives birth to a single offspring once every 11 months. Every winter freeze destroys the tough grasslands the animals feed on and almost no crops can survive in the nutrient-poor soil.
In this July 11, 2016 photo, a skinned alpaca, which died due to sub-freezing temperatures, hangs on a fence above live alpacas in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Alpaca owners are butchering their dead animals to cook for their families and feed to their dogs which scare off foxes that prey on baby alpacas. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 8, 2016 photo, Maria Quispe holds her dog named Colmillo Blanco while shepherding her alpacas and sheep in her snow covered fields in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 10, 2016 photo, Felipa Catunta and her husband Modesto carry what remains of their alpacas that died due to sub-freezing temperatures in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Every alpaca that dies represents a major financial loss. The couple butchered their dead alpacas to cook for their family and feed to their dogs which scare off foxes that prey on baby alpacas. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
When alpacas die, families butcher the animals for their meat. But eventually they go hungry and their children can become sick due to an almost-complete lack of heating. Two months into the cold season an estimated 14,000 children in the Andes have suffered from respiratory illnesses and 105 died, according to government figures. The majority of the cases are in the Puno region where the alpacas are concentrated.
“Sometimes they have six relapses in a single winter,” said Cirilino Suxso, the only medical professional at a health post 14,750 feet (4,500 meters) high in the mountains.
In this July 11, 2016 photo, Ruth Aguilar holds her daughter Chaska, which translates as “Star” in the Quechua language, as a doctor inspects the baby suffering a respiratory infection in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Two months into the cold season an estimated 14,000 children in the Andes have suffered from respiratory illnesses and 105 died, according to government figures. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Such is the case of 20-month-old Ismael Ccallo, whose mother attempts to lower a dangerously high fever, so far unsuccessfully, with herbal infusions.
“He doesn’t want to eat and when he lies down in bed he can’t breathe, he just cries” said Sofia Ccallo early one morning as she prepares to brave the snowy conditions outside her adobe and grass-roofed hut and take her son to the closest hospital two hours away by motorcycle.
In this July 9, 2016 photo, Rosa Carcabusto and her daughter Maria Luque stand outside their home before cooking a dinner soup of wheat and dried potatoes, in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Poverty has driven many farmers’ children from their homes to work in illegal mines or Peru’s flourishing cocaine trade. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 9, 2016 photo, Rosa Carcabusto and her daughter Maria Luque warm themselves by the fire where they cook soup made of wheat and dried potatoes in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. In stark contrast to the high prices charged by designer brands for alpaca wool goods is the daily struggle against the elements and poverty by the thousands of highland shepherds whose livelihood depends on the trade. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 9, 2016 photo, newborn sheep that died due to sub-freezing temperatures lay on the ground after being placed there by a villager in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. So far this year, low temperatures have killed 50,000 alpacas, as well as sheep in similar numbers, while authorities fear that a drop in the mercury to 23 degrees Celsius (-9 degrees Fahrenheit) below zero could claim as many as 300,000 camelids. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 11, 2016 photo, a villager walks through a herd of alpacas as the sun rises in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru. Peru is the world’s largest producer of alpaca wool, an almost silky natural fiber coveted by the world’s top-flight designers. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 9, 2016 photo, a cross stands in a snow covered cemetery in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru, where people raise alpacas and sheep for their wool. “Every year with the winter freezes and cold temperatures the plants and animals die,” said Miguel Hadzich, head of a group affiliated with Peru’s Catholic University that on its own has built 600 homes with heating for farmers. “A scandal breaks out and then the state looks the other way. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this July 9, 2016 photo, light shines from a home’s window in the late afternoon amid fields of snow in San Antonio de Putina in the Puno region of Peru, an area where locals raise alpaca and sheep for their wool. Every winter freeze destroys the tough grasslands the animals feed on and almost no crops can survive in the nutrient-poor soil. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
There have been a few private attempts to give farmers a bigger share of the $150 million Peru exports in alpaca fleece every year. Most sell fleece, on average, for a little over $5 a kilogram and the fleece passes through several intermediaries before arriving on the shelves of luxury stores where a jacket made of the wool can fetch as much as $5,000.
But the inequities persist and many children of alpaca farmers have been driven from their homes to work in illegal mines or Peru’s cocaine trade.
“Every year with the winter freezes and cold temperatures the plants and animals die,” said Miguel Hadzich, head of a group affiliated with Peru’s Catholic University that has built 600 homes with heating for alpaca farmers. “A scandal breaks out and then the state looks the other way.”
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This was interesting to read. I hate to see their livestock die like that. I would hope the government would get better at helping these people and their livestock survive. Very interesting blog!
AP Images Blog 
This was interesting to read. I hate to see their livestock die like that. I would hope the government would get better at helping these people and their livestock survive. Very interesting blog!
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