[Tserisa]

"Allergies" to urine could be hypersensitivity pneumonitis, rather than allergies. Which is indeed deadly. It is the same autoimmune reaction which causes houses with mold to be condemned.

I used to keep many birds. My mom got birdkeeper's lung -- hypersensitivity pneumonitis in reaction to proteins in bird feathers and dander. She also reacted to rat urine.

I did not put my birds outside.

I rehomed most of them -- and I still cry about it to this day, it was heart-wrenching -- and then moved out with my beloved African grey. I moved into a single room apartment in someone's house in the middle of nowhere, because that was all I could afford. I didn't have a phone, internet, or TV, because I couldn't afford them. I lived on mostly vegetarian ramen. But I had ChuChu. (And she still ate her pellets and fresh veggies even if it meant I had about a dollar a day to spend on my food!)

To the end of her life my mom couldn't even go in petstores or rescues or shows that had birds, or even places with feathers decorating the place. Her lungs would literally attack themselves. I had to change my clothes to go visit her.

If someone has a deadly reaction to an animal then it is best for the person AND the animal to not have the animals anywhere around. That means not on the property. Beyond that, it is simply, without question, cruel and dangerous to house the guinea pigs outside.

My sister has bad allergies to rabbits -- her favorite animal. She has a free range house bunny. She takes three kinds of medicine daily so that she doesn't have to give her up. My husband is a little allergic to cats -- his favorite animal - and has asthma. He goes to the allergy shot clinic twice a week and uses a lung trainer so that he can have a cat and be healthy.

On the other hand, my brother-in-law has such severe allergies to cats that any time he touches one, he ends up in the hospital. He can't go in a house with a cat. My sister-in-law has to check all food and things given to him to make sure it doesn't have a single cat hair on it. Would he get a cat and then put it outside in a hutch? Of course not! They have a beloved house bunny, an animal he's not allergic to.

It is not fair to the animal to keep it if it's just going to be left outside, with no floor time and little interaction. It's just selfish. Period. If they really are a "part of your family" then treat them like family.