Sheriff's deputies are trying to figure out who beheaded a 5-day-old alpaca in southern Wisconsin.

Officials have few leads and are investigating it as an animal cruelty case, Walworth County Undersheriff Kurt Picknell said.

When Tana Ward came home from work Oct. 10 to her WillowTan Farm, north of Delavan, she noticed one of the alpacas, a 17-pound baby named Arianne, was missing.

She found it in the pasture, but the head was gone.  "The whole aspect of it was really sickening," Ward said.

At first, she thought it was killed by a coyote, but there were no bite or scratch marks.

Deputies determined the head was severed cleanly and someone had climbed through the fence, Ward said.

"I don't feel it was a personal attack," Ward said. "We don't have any trouble with our neighbors. Everyone has been very nice to us since we moved here. I think it was very isolated."

Alpacas have value for breeding and for their fur, but the head is of little use, Ward said.

Ward figures the perpetrators went after the little one because they could catch it.

Investigators have no suspects, witnesses or motive. No other animal beheadings have been reported in the area, Picknell said.

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