They are lower than cattle.
Cattle have understood guidelines and any vet in Bumfuck nowhere understands how to examine cattle, and when cattle are being abused "Slaughter them, or sell them, or I take them" has a very clear, legally defined pipeline. Often it doesn't even need to go that far, the Sheriff will sit down the incompetent in a room with a local rancher who says "I will pay you more than these animals are worth as a favor to the Sheriff" and said incompetent will always take the proffered check.
Alpaca have none of these things and are exotic (read: invasive) animals. The sheriff can't just call Dr. Gibson to grab his shoulder-depth gloves, he's got to find someone who understands these non-standard creatures (spoiler: He won't) so he'll roll up, see the animals have four legs, two eyes, and (trampled) feed, then shrug and say "I don't see anything wrong". Even if Dr. Joseph Caemelover happens to live in the county, the "slaughter or sell" is a harder thing to do with bespoke animals like Alpaca. I'm not sure if there is a market for Alpaca meat and I doubt the sheriff knows either. and if the sheriff forces a sale without a successful abuse charge, there is a possibility of being financially liable for damages.
Yes, its very clear for us to sitting in our basements to look at Tranch Alpaca and healthy alpaca, and see that Tranch alpaca are showing all the signs of starvation and other mistreatment, but its a whole other thing to provide a legally solid analysis.
Its not legal probably because you're in a town/city.
Out in the county, anything goes.
There are laws about how you are supposed to dispose of livestock, but if you - as a private citizen - get busted, its basically a parking ticket. If a corporate farm gets caught, its a very large parking ticket. It can be a little more serious with Cattle, because of the possibility of disease spreading, but again its all citation level shit.
@Trianon posted the requirements, and trust me no one is rolling around in a patrol car setting up stings or sweating suspects. You are only getting busted if you failed so hard at conforming to the guidelines it is readily apparent (read: smell of rotting carcasses) you failed.
There is often reporting guidelines for large numbers of Sheep and Cattle, because local department of agriculture want to be aware of any disease outbreaks that would affect food supply. But Alpaca are not standard lifestock.
Its not avoided any more than anyone else.
And the Tranch got rescue alpacas. These are alpaca no one else wanted and were happy someone took off their hands. Most live stock in rescues are not healthy and a few youtube/tiktok YOU WONT BELIEVE WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE SIX MONTHS LATER videos asside, the outcomes for rescues are generally not good.
Again, no one is beating the Alpaca with pipewrench.
I believe the "Tranch facilitated the slaughter" and not "did it themselves" was implied.
But you are correct, the meat packages had barcodes and labels that were clearly from a butcher, and Sidechew was doing everything he could in the tweet to imply the tranch had self-sufficiently raised and butchered the animals opposed to just hauling the critter down to the butcher to be turned into chops.
Then you will not have a good time at Alpacaschwitz.
