In 1984, Camelids of Delaware, Inc. imported the very first alpacas into North America from Chile. Tom Hunt and Jurgen Schulz shared a vision for the future of the alpaca industry in North America. They imported and exported animals all over the world, setting up quarantine stations on every continent. Importing alpacas and llamas into the United States in the early 80's set them on a twenty year visionary quest to build a strong market for alpacas in North America and around the world.

In 1993, Camelids of Delaware, Inc teamed up with Pet Center to make the first import of Peruvian Alpacas out of South America a reality. This was no small accomplishment with the Shining Path terrorists abundant in the Altiplano, the bureaucratic entanglements between unfriendly governments, and the hurdles to protect domestic livestock with imports from a third world country.

Over the next seven years, not only did these Peruvian importations succeed, they thrived! In fact, it set the North American alpaca breeding community on fire! The history is now legendary, with nearly every major herd in North America touting the Peruvian pedigrees as their best.

One of the best kept secrets of the CODI herd was Director of Operations, Bill Coburn, who was on the selection team for all seven Peruvian importations. Bill is as knowledgeable about alpacas as anyone in the industry today, and is equally conversant and experienced with a variety of wild animals from tigers to camels. Bill continues this herd's incredible legacy into the Peruvian Heritage Alpacas herd.

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The large co-ops had hundreds of white alpacas from which Bill and the selection team could choose.

Alpacas from individual Peruvian breeders were herded out of the altiplano for the selection team to inspect.

Once selected, alpacas were transported by truck to the quarantine station.

After quarantine in Tacna, the alpacas were flown to the U.S. quarantine in Key West at a high security Naval base.