Perfect example why NOT to let young children play with piggies!

[Fay]

I heard about this story in the news a while ago and so I looked it up. This happened in the netherlands so I've translated it, I was absolutely disgusted about this story, who in the right mind would do such a thing??! I'm really furious:

Cuddling Children's hands ment the death of several guinea pigs.



dinsdag 10 oktober 2006 om 12:13
GRONINGEN, NETHERLANDS (ANP)- The over enthusastic hands of children caused the death of several guinea pigs during the opening of Caviastad (GuineapigCity) which is a Petfarm for Children. According to the owner of the Petfarm(Wegafarm) the children between the ages of four and six were handling them too roughly. Several children even accidently sat down on a few of the pigs. 3 of the 10 guinea pigs did not survive.

That weekend prior to the deaths, The staff of Caviastad set up a special playing pen for the children where they could pet and hold the guinea pigs. "A mother warned us that the children were being too rough on the guinea pigs after which we took action and put them back in their cages. The guinea pigs didn't die right away, You could see that some of the guinea pigs weren't feeling too well and later that night died, Probably from internal injury." So the owner thought.

Caviastad (De Ridammerhoeve) has now been closed and the seven guinea pigs that survived were returned to the breeder.

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Original dutch version:

Knuffelige kinderhandjes worden cavia's fataal

dinsdag 10 oktober 2006 om 12:13
GRONINGEN (ANP)- Al te enthousiaste kinderhandjes zijn een aantal cavia's fataal geworden tijdens de opening van Caviastad op de Groningse kinderboerderij Wegafarm. Volgens de directeur van de kinderboerderij waren de kinderen te hardhandig aan het knuffelen.
Een aantal van de kleuters ging zelfs per ongeluk op de beestjes zitten. ,,Drie van de tien cavia's overleefden het niet'', aldus de directeur dinsdag.
Voor Caviastad had de kinderboerderij het afgelopen weekeinde een apart hok ingericht waar kinderen de beestjes konden vasthouden en knuffelen. ,,Een moeder waarschuwde ons dat de kinderen wel heel hardhandig met de beestjes omgingen, waarop we de cavia's direct in hun hokjes hebben teruggezet.''

Ze waren niet meteen dood. ,,Je zag wel dat een aantal cavia's niet zo lekker in hun vel zat. Later die avond zijn ze doodgegaan, vermoedelijk aan inwendig letsel.'' denkt de directeur. De kinderboerderij heeft 'Caviastad' (De Ridammerhoeve) opgeheven en de zeven cavia's die de dag overleefd hebben, teruggebracht naar de fokker.

[Sabriel]

That's terrible! Poor piggies.

[Cavies2B3]

OMG! Why didn't the parents jump in and stop their particular child from rough housing! Um HELLO, If I would have seen one of my kids in the act I would have yanked her out of there so fast her head would spin. Someone should have been supervising, the petting zoo officials and the PARENTS!!! As soon as things began they should have rounded all the piggies up and gotten them out of their and kicked the children out. Not to mention a place like that should never have been opened under such poor management. JEEZ how ignorant can people get??????????

[Fay]

I KNOW! anyone who knows a bit about guinea pigs knows never to let small children hold and pet guinea pigs unsupervised! This guinea pig city idea is terrible! That breeder most have been horrid to if he/she knew what they were gonna do with the piggies!

[Cavies2B3]

Actually anyone who knows anything about any animals Period has the common sense to Know not to leave children of any irresponsible age unsupervised. Those POOR animals. JEEZ I just don't know what else to say about it, thats Just aweful.

[Res Judicata]

That is just horrible. My two middle children are four and six, and very gentle with my pigs, but I'd never leave them alone with them. They always sit on the couch next to me to pet them. The six year old went through a phase where he felt the need to pick up the pigs by himself and carry them around. I put a stop to that with a temporary lid on the cage and some discussions about what we do when we want to hold a guinea pig. Why would anyone ever let a small child run wild with a small creature? I don't understand people.

[clover-crystal]

That's shocking, and demonstrates why young children should not be left on their own accord with cavies.

[fashion victim]

Little kids are little buggers when it comes to animals. A 9 yr old neighbor started being a pest to her parents and whining for a puppy. Since she was an only child they never forbid her anything, so they went to the shelter (at least they did something right) and adopted what they thought was a beagle (the mother is very snobby and wanted a purebreed dog). A few days later they took the female puppy to get spayed. Obviously after such a surgery she had to be left alone and avoid being picked up or jumping. The parents had a serious talk with the girl, but she never listened and kept playing too roughly with the puppy until the stitches burst. Luckily her dad was a doctor so he knew what to do, and he stitched her belly and took her to the vet the other day. However, it was clearly the little brat's fault for not obeying, and they didn't even punish her! So what happens? In less than a week the stitches burst again! I had a talk with her mother and they decided to leave the dog in the vet's office until the vet could safely remove the stitches. Ok, problem solved.

Some months later, though, the puppy had a growth spurt and grew up a LOT. She had all the markings of a beagle, yet she weighted over 35 pounds even though she was very slim, and grew to about 20 inches at the shoulder. She got very destructive and completly destroyed a brand new leather couch they had bought, not to mention the countless shoes and the girl's toys.The family wanted to get rid of her but I had another talk with the mother and she felt so guilty that she almost burst out crying. Now the dog is a beloved family pet and lives in the U.S. where the family moved to some months ago.

Also, small kids are very clumsy. I never let anyone younger than 16 near my animals. You'd think a 12 year old would be mature enough, but not so! At least, not on my experience. When I had just gotten my puppy I decided to take her to the beach apartment so that she could explore the beach and the vast grounds of the apartment complex. Well, right next to my apartment was a 12 yr old who fell in love with Mia. She talked a bit with me and asked to play with the puppy. I said ok, and we headed towards the playground.

The girl, full of youthful stamina, ran all the way to the kiddie area and before I knew what was happening she climbed the slide and sent the dog sliding! Needless to say, since there was no one down there to hold her at the end of the slide, the poor pup flew about 4 feet before landing very hard in the ground and yapping her lungs out. She even limped for a few hours afterwards. I was so furious I screamed at the girl until she burst in tears and ran away, and had I been her same age I would've smacked her face off (those endearing little innocent fights children throw, eh?).

I can't believe how a 12 year old could behave so inmaturely and so stupidly! I mean, what was wrong with her! She was 12 YEARS OLD for god's sake! She should know better than to treat a LIVE BABY indefenseless animal like that. I was in JR High when I was 12 years old (7th grade)!!!

These situations only go to show that small kids (and not-so-small ones) need MUCH adult supervision at ALL times when dealing with animals, especially small ones. Maybe they don't hurt the animals on purpose, maybe they are just clumsy but still the animal is getting hurt.

[cinny123]

I understand for the most part what you are saying. But kids can be taught, believe it or not. I have six kids and never had a problem with them with animals. They were taught to be careful and kind with them . I know sometimes something can happen, but in my situation it didn't. I always kept an eye on them around the animal when they (the kids) were small and I wouldn't advise just giving a pet without teaching and supervision. I think kids being around animals can teach kindness and responsibility. Of course, some kids are just plain brats and were not raised right and I wouldn't let them fool with animals!

[mtaylor33557]

I agree that it is possible to teach a child how to behave around animals. I have three neices (8, 10, and 11) and a nephew (7) and even though they are generally quite loud and hyper, they know how to behave when they come to see me and my piggies. They'll sit quietly by the cage and watch the girls, or gently pet them while I hold them. I've known some kids that will nearly kill everything they touch, but there are some good ones out there.

[ScottandDebbie]

OMG Buffy.... I only managed to read a bit, and tears in my eyes.

God... why, oh Why do things like this have to happen.
Those precious little piggers.

Simply awful.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
We need to get off our *behinds* and do more to teach/ inform, and protect animals. This is a perfect example.

[_Luck_]

I can'y say I hate little kids when it comes to animals,but they definitely can be an annoyance...when we were buying Elmo,a kid about six or something came up to us and started petting him nicely,and asked to pet him.We gave him and she starts squeezing him so hard he was crying and struggling,and we had to grab him off of her before she really hurt him,but we know that he had no injuries,he was right as rain,but was wary when being picked up a short while after that.
I consider the age of roughly 9 expected to be able to handle animals completely.Cinny,that poor dog!I never knew you could actually make stitches burst without real stretching.That's awful.

[fashion victim]

Originally Posted by _Luck_

Cinny,that poor dog!I never knew you could actually make stitches burst without real stretching.That's awful.

She kept picking it up under its front paws and letting the puppy hang in the air, and she'd zoom the pup around to "make it fly". *rolls eyes*

[citronsoul]

I read about this awhile ago in the news. There was a huge outcry from the general public (and the Dutch guinea pig community). They ended up deleting the original guestbook on their website because of all the extreme comments they received.

My general impression of local petting zoos is that they don't have enough staff supervision. Of course it's up to parents to control their children, but if they don't have that much experience with pets themselves, their children aren't exactly raised with an understanding of animals.

I went to a petting zoo in the Netherlands with my niece about a year ago. When I was checking on the guinea pigs I noticed there was no supervision at all. People could just go right into their enclosure. If I had wanted to, I could have picked up a pig, put it in my (winter) jacket and walked off.

[Carissa]

That is so horrible I can't believe that they would let just anyone handle pigs, that's just asking for something like that to happen. My experience is you can't always trust parents to teach their kids how to hold animals properly. There are a lot of slacker parents who just don't care.

My question is why didn't they take the guinea pigs to a vet if they could see that they "weren't feeling too well"? He just let them suffer and die? He should have taken them to the vet and charged the parents with the vet bills. That would have, at the very least, taught them a lesson.

And is that supposed to be the pig's water in the bottle in the picture?

[Jennicat]

One of the most horrible parts of the article is that they apparently knew the guinea pigs were injured, but just left them in their hutches? They looked like they felt badly, so he left them out there to die by themselves.