[aqh88]

Just saying the guinea pigs are happier is not really a good reason for putting them in danger. I told my mom that was the main argument people were using and you know what her answer was... "My children were happier playing ball in the street but I still made them play in the yard". The chances of them getting attacked and injured or killed by something is insanely higher than a car crash. That's why I used the bike example. If a young kid rides a bike down a really busy street every day the odds are they will get hit or something will happen within a couple weeks. Same with the pigs. Chances are they will get attacked by something (already happened) within the month. That is what makes it a stupid irresponsible risk. It's quite obviously wrong. While yes there are grey areas. There are times we can argue about it and say maybe the risk is too high and maybe it's not. I've been on the receiving end of that myself when I tried to ask about setting up a guinea pig safe horse stall and notice my outdoor guinea pig pen doesn't have that many responses. This is not one of those cases where we can argue. It is not grey. It is obviously dangerous. It has already proven to be dangerous. If we put a child in a similar situation people would be reporting the mother for child endangerment.

You cannot always do whatever your child or pet wants. You have to compromise. "Ok you can play ball in the front yard but if you go in the street you will have to stay in the smaller back yard from now on" or to my dog " you can go off leash in the pastures so long as you stay on this side of the fence. If you don't you will have to be on a leash." To a guinea pig "ok you can go outside while I'm around in this safe pen but when I'm not outside too you'll have to stay inside." The animals may not be able to understand as well as the child but that is the compromise we are making with them to keep them both happy and safe.

That is part of the reason we build such large cages. So they can be happy inside when we have to keep them there. I also picked an 8lb salad for my aunt to feed them while I was gone this weekend so they would not miss out on their grass and forages by being stuck inside. A pet does not know the risks of it's actions so we cannot always do what makes them happy. If they knew the risks they probably wouldn't choose to do it but would want that extra security and protection that we think is necessary. Since we can't ask them we will have to make the choice ourselves.