Backyard breeder in Indiana -- 30 homeless pigs

[SandyF]

This has my bloodpressure through the roof today. Classified ad on Petfinder for Indiana:

1204165 Small & Furry:abyssinian
Lafayette,IN 765-474-7057 Mary kathrine_79@yahoo.com8-05-2006Age:2 months to 3 y
Size:S
DeleteWe have close to 30 guinea pigs ranging in age from 2 months to about 3 years. Most are 5 months old. We have male and females available for $10 each. These are for pets only, not for breeding or as food for other pets. Our pigs range in color. We have them in black, dark brown, white, and tan. They are all multi-colored. Will not ship, please call to make arrangements to come pick out which one/s you would like to have. They are great with children and have never bitten a person. If you have any further wuestion, please call me. Thank you, Mary 765-474-7057

I contacted the email address to ask why she has 30 guinea pigs for sale (I suspected backyard breeder, but wanted to hear it from her), and sure enough she wrote back to me just now:

We had been breeding them for a local pet store that sells them, and also to sell as pets from our home. Hoever, we just recently had a child and with the new baby in the house, it has become too difficult for me to keep up with my pigs and my kids, so I am trying to find homes for at least the majority of my pigs.

She's well North of Indy and definitely out of my driving range, but this has me just about ready to implode.

[fourbwabbys]

I would email her back and explain the use of petfinder. Not to support BYB's, but rescues.

[SandyF]

I wrote:

[FONT=Arial]I’m sorry about your situation; it’s a prime example of why I lecture people against backyard breeding. Things happen, lives changes; the animals are always the ones who end up getting the short end of the deal. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Also, I want to point out that Petfinder is a rescue-oriented resource for shelters and rescues. They do allow people to post classifieds for the occasional pet that needs a new home for whatever reason, but it’s not intended to be a place for breeders to dump their unwanted stock.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial] [/FONT]

[fourbwabbys]

That sounds good. Tell us when she replies.

[momof2pigs]

A few on the PF boards also responed to her. It is sad, but breeder classifies often "slip through" on there. I found an ad where a woman made NO ATTEMPT to hide the fact she was selling baby rabbits. She even used the word "sell", and yet there it was on the PF classifies as "adoptable".

[SandyF]

Well, what really irked me was when I contacted PF and alerted them to the ad, and was told that they would not remove it. They said that, because the woman is no longer breeding, they would allow the ad to remain in the hopes that the pigs would all find good homes.

[Percy's Mom]

I can certainly understand the initial outrage to the ad since she was obviously breeding these pigs. In the long run though, which is the better option. Either PF removes the ad, so she probably ends up keeping the pigs and ends up breeding them at a later time, or the ad stays up, and her pigs find homes? Sure, she could turn them over to a shelter or rescue, but if she is REALLY not breeding anymore, this gets those pigs into homes and out of her hands.

[SandyF]

I understand that. I still have mixed feelings about a breeder posting on Petfinder. A classified ad in a newspaper would make more sense to me, instead of posting on a board that is primarily a resource for rescues and shelters. I can see PF's position, but at the same time we have no way of knowing if the woman has truly stopped breeding vs. looked at this as an easy way to cull some of her unwanted stock.

At any rate, I hope the pigs find homes.

[Percy's Mom]

I think Petfinders main point is that they really have no way of knowing if ANYONE who posts a classified ad is trying to get rid of unwanted/unneeded breeder stock or not, so they are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt since she said she is not breeding any longer and put in the ad that these pigs are not for breeding or animal food.

[SandyF]

I suppose, but Petfinder's guidelines are pretty clear with regard to the intent of the Classifieds -- it's for people trying to rehome a pet or stray. The fact that she's dumping 30 animals is a red flag that this woman is doing neither.

Yes, the guinea pigs need homes and hopefully they'll find them rather than end up being bred again or dumped at one of her pet store customers. My concern is that this breeder has found a way around the rules and is essentially using Petfinder for free advertising of her "going out of business" sale. I'd just hate to see this sort of thing become commonplace on PF.