Animal Welfare So angry!! - Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Store, Photos of Guinea Pigs and More Forum!

**luvmycavies** · #1 07-01-09, 01:52 pm

So...to start I hope this is the correct forum. I am so livid over this woman who is constantly posting on Craigslist in my area. She claims to be a cat, cavy and bunny rescue but cannot drive and offers "discounts and asks for food" daily. She now has posted a trade for a newborn male for a newborn female cavy.

Two of her "rescues" had babies last night. The cages and conditions are terrible...colorful mixed food, pine and ceder shavings for bedding, small cages with piggers crammed in and mineral licks and only one pigloo per cage.

It makes me angry and saddened. If only my home were bigger I would be a rescue....a proper one. Can I call someone to check her out or report her? If I do what will happen to the cavies?

**Peggysu** · #2 07-01-09, 01:54 pm

I believe you could notify animal control.

**CavyMama** · #3 07-01-09, 02:00 pm

Yeah PeggySu is right. I would call animal control or at least the police. Some kind of law enforcement to go in and make sure she is keeping the animals in proper conditions. The only problem you might run up against is, not everyone is aware of the harmful effects of using the wrong type of bedding so that detail might be overlooked. Someone unaware of the proper conditions might go in and see nothing wrong with her situation. So they might need a punchlist of things to look for.

**LauraBean** · #4 07-01-09, 02:21 pm

I agree with everyone else, call animal control... she does sound like a breeder, rather than a rescue. She also sounds like she's taking advantage of regular Joe people who aren't very knowledgeable about guinea pigs but have their heart in the right place, and intend to help the poor babies.
If you'll give the link for your Craiglslist (i'm not sure if you can link it to the thread or not) I'll check it daily and flag her.

**luvmycavies** · #5 07-01-09, 02:49 pm

Here is a picture of one of her adds...... Cavies Needing Homes, Need To "Make Room"/More Coming In.....

**dra&pigs** · #6 07-01-09, 03:33 pm

I'm not sure how far you will actually get with animal control-yes, those cages are tiny, and the food and bedding aren't high-quality, but the fact is, there are a ton of breeders who are worse. These piggies aren't properly taken care of, but from the picture, they have clean bedding, food, hay and adequate shelter. Animal control takes care of far more horrible situations than these, and they are already hardpressed to deal with the cases they have. It would be good to report it, yes, but I doubt it will get that far. These piggies aren't dying-just not superbly taken care of.

**luvmycavies** · #7 07-01-09, 03:46 pm

I am much calmer now and really....she says she lets them outside when it is nice...etc. I am upset it isn't ideal but...I am sure she is still doing a good thing by at least trying to rescue them. I don't have alot of space, my husband is grateful for that. He keeps dreaming he will walk in one day from work and our house will have endless C&C cages and runs with tons of rescued piggies!

I just wish more people had the knowledge of this site and the best way to care for these awesome critters!

**blackarrow** · #8 07-01-09, 04:04 pm

OK, I looked at the site about which you're upset. You might as well not bother wasting Animal Control's time calling them, as there is no way in this world that they're going to do anything at all here. Unfortunate as it is, those really ARE bigger than most cages are for guineas. The pigs look healthy and the cage is clean. Rescues would frequently get in pregnant pigs, and even if she was deliberately breeding, there's nothing at all illegal about that, nor is there anything inappropriate about having a "special" - totally legitimate rescues do that kind of thing to encourage adoptions too.

**PiggieMom** · #9 07-01-09, 04:30 pm

The best thing you can do is flag her craigslist ad if you suspect she's a breeder, since the sale of live animals is against craigslist's terms of service.

**blackarrow** · #10 07-01-09, 04:36 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiggieMom

The best thing you can do is flag her craigslist ad if you suspect she's a breeder, since the sale of live animals is against craigslist's terms of service.

The thing is, as so many members here have found out, many piggie pregnancies come about before the pig gets into your hands. I don't actually see anything here which suggests "breeder," and it would be a pity to flag an actual rescue, however small the cages.

**PiggieMom** · #11 07-01-09, 04:47 pm

I'm suspicious of the poster's acceptance of 'trades'. I've never heard of a rescue trading animal for animal.

**Paula** · #12 07-01-09, 04:47 pm

I remember when this woman was first starting out as a guinea pig rescue she was actually asking for people to come and take a look at her setup. Because of that I suspect she'd at least be open to suggestions, so I just sent her a quick message. The trade you originally posted about is questionable, definitely, and I'll ask her about that should she reply to my email. I believe started with cats alone and somewhere along the way started taking in pigs and bunnies.

Her conditions aren't ideal, but not many home based rescues really are. She's providing temporary housing to these animals that would otherwise be dumped in shelters, or worse.

She asks for food daily because she's probably spent quite a bit of her own money on medical and general care for the animals she's taking in.

**blackarrow** · #13 07-01-09, 05:48 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiggieMom

I'm suspicious of the poster's acceptance of 'trades'. I've never heard of a rescue trading animal for animal.

It's odd but that could well be legitimate. Example. Person gets a pig from a pet store as a companion for an existing pig, and surprise, the pet store pig is mis-sexed, but they won't take him back - I could definitely see a rescue being willing to trade for a pig of the appropriate sex. I work with a dog rescue which has occasionally had people who needed to surrender a dog which was dog-aggressive to another dog in their home, but they did want their other dog to have a companion, and we were willing to adopt a different dog back out to them which was a better "fit." Sometimes it isn't that the home is unfit, it's that the personalities or the sex of the animals cause a problem.

**luvmycavies** · #14 07-01-09, 05:52 pm

I am sorry for getting so upset so quickly.
I e-mailed her and she does admit to breeding her guineas because she wanted a male baby for her other male.
She also does rescue animals and went to great length to describe what she does for them. I just am so aware now of others' treatment of animals and sometime get my feathers ruffled too easily. I guess at least she is rescueing animals that would probably have no where to go otherwise.

**blackarrow** · #15 07-01-09, 06:02 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by luvmycavies

I am sorry for getting so upset so quickly.
I e-mailed her and she does admit to breeding her guineas because she wanted a male baby for her other male.

You don't have anything for which to apologize!

So let me get this straight, instead of waiting for another boy pig to come in, she bred a litter so one of her boys could have a companion, but she ended up with a girl baby, not a boy baby, so she's swapping a pig she brought into the world on purpose for HER OWN convenience? She's an idiot.

**luvmycavies** · #16 07-01-09, 06:05 pm

Actually she bred 2 of her females and ended up with 5 baby girls! I flagged her for breeding!

**geminiwave** · #17 07-02-09, 11:22 am

I have to say, as bad as it is, I've seen WAYYY worse conditions for piggies.

She actually has the largest of pet store cages. I know thats like saying the best of the garbage, but actually the biggest pet store cages are better than what most people do at home with their guineas.

**wonderwhiskers** · #18 07-02-09, 11:59 am

She says that the cages are bigger than most cages piggers are kept in ..
We say that they still aren't big enough!

**sealion** · #19 07-02-09, 08:15 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by wonderwhiskers

She says that the cages are bigger than most cages piggers are kept in ..
We say that they still aren't big enough!

Yes, the cages she's using are bigger than most cages other piggies are kept in, but yes they aren't big enough. Did anyone tell her about this site ? Some people probably don't know there is an alternative to the petstore cages, so they get the "best they can find" and hope it's ok. If somebody tells her about this site, I'm sure she would be delited to find a cheap, bigger alternative to those petstore cage. If nobody (or somebody already did) wants to email her, I can and will tell her about this site.

**luvmycavies** · #20 07-02-09, 09:20 pm

I added the link to this site when I e-mailed her to ask about the breeding.

"Thank you, Peggysu, for this useful post," says:
CavyMama (07-01-09)

"Thank you, blackarrow, for this useful post," say these 3 members:
Ibbet (07-02-09), katiewilson (07-02-09), wonderwhiskers (07-02-09)