Alpacas help with oil spill in the Gulf

TERRE HAUTE, Ind (WTHI) - Looking at the pictures on TV about the oil spill can be heart breaking and make you feel helpless, but one local organization has stepped in to help without leaving the area.

A group called Matter of Trust has been collecting hair and fiber to make booms for the Gulf oil spill. The booms will help collect the oil.

Alpaca fur collects oil too, so the Sisters of Providence are sending about 50 pounds away to help collect oil off the coast of Florida.

"There is two ways that they can do it. They either make felted mats out of it or they stuff panty hose and then cover that with a kind of mesh and they use it in the water like any other boom," Director of the White Violet Center Sister Maureen Freeman said.

The UPS store on south U.S. 41 in Terre Haute has also volunteered to ship the fur for free.

For more information about Matter of Trust click here .