I'm going to try to explain why
GPs and Rabbits are viewed in so many places as "outside pets" and why this thinking is outdated.
Not so very long ago most families kept several animals as livestock. They may have a pig, a few chickens, goats or a cow for food purposes. They would have horses for travel a dog to protect and herd the animals and keep predetors and vermin out of the barn or sheds and cats would roan the property to kill the mice. The children in the family might keep rabbits, both as pets and a food source, or more financially secure families might keep something essencially worthless for their children as a pet like Guinea Pigs. All of these animals were kept outside. They were livestock. Even the animals viewed as pets were kept outside because that is where animals belonged.
As technology and better availability to food at affordable priced came along the small clutch of livestock disapeared. Gone was the pig and cow. Pork and milk could be bought easily at a store. Soon the chickens and cows followed suit and then the horses once cars and public transportation became available.
The small pets stayed for many families. Dogs and even cats started coming into the houses. It was hard for people to get rid of their dogs and cats because they were personable. They had been such an important part of our lives that we willingly found a new role for them. Dogs and cats became our social friends but still the rabbits and the Guinea Pigs stayed outside in hutches.
Perhaps it is because rabbits and guinea pigs are quiet. They don't whine and scratch at the back door or come climbing in through an open window. They have been forgotten as the rest of the family farm disapeared.
Why is it that on a rainy night we sit inside with a cat in our lap or patting a dog's head while outside there are small, frail creatures huddled in drafty hutches? Many people over the years came to realize that perhaps outside wasn't the ideal place to keep small animals after all. They opened their homes and brought them in and have enjoyed a wonderful relationship with their pets ever since.
The idea of keeping rabbits and guinea pigs outside is as outdated as keeping a cow or a pig in the yard. These poor animals got overlooked as time progressed. They are in even more peril outside then they were in the days of the family farm. Now they dont have a watchdog to keep an eye on them or even the entire family constantly passing by them as they tend to chores.
Dogs, cats, crows, snakes, mice, rats, mosquitos, flies and other insects, rain, sleet, sun and wind and more are all potentially fatal to animals left outside.
Time to catch up with society and stop treating pets as livestock. People can cry all they want about how they love their pets that they keep outside, but the fact is you don't love them enough to bring them in to have them with you all the time. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad but I simply cannot imagine not having my beloved pets in the house with me all the time.