Guinea Pigs Living In Peru

Some more.

Well it was cute to see the piggies in their natural habitat but the food one was less then appealing...

Yikes! That roasted "cui" was scary. It doesn't even look like they prep it or anything.

And i thought having 6 was a lot of guinea pigs. I hate to think about my pets being eaten, but it is the same thing as eating dogs in china, although it is depressing.

I just thought about this thread and the one posted by slap about the class pet in the small cage. I was thinking about ehich situation i'd rather be in, and i decided that i would rather be a piggy in peru

I would rather be able to run and stretch my piggy legs with all of my piggy friends, with greens to eat, then be in a cage so small i can barely move, where i have no piggy friends and am constantly being scared to death by little kids.

Although pigs become food in Peru, i think since they are living with the family in a house, their quality of life would be much better than the classroom pet.
Just my thoughts . . .

I wish I could go to Peru and rescue them all!!!
That pregnant black and white guinea pig in the first photo is huuuge!! Poor babies are going to be born, fattened, then eaten (((

It is very sad that they are eaten, I do not agree with it at all but it is their way of life. They are not pets to these people. It is just like us eating cows, chicken and pigs. (Even though most of you are vegis!)

I love guinea pigs to death...but i mean...im peruvian and was born in peru...so i accept it that i might have aten guinea pig before...cus i was adopted from their when i was like 1 or something...and my sister was like almost 3...so yea.I'm actually going back their to find my birth mom.We use to live in a poor place and then we lived in an orfanige...it was right outside of lima,in the mountains.But...when i go their,im going to be getting guinea pigs their...im going to save them from being eaten.My mom already said i could take at least 4,so im going to...but im going to try to take a lot more.
Anyways,yea...if you guys wanna see a pic of me,here are some:

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yea...those are some random ones...some of them are last years pics.And then some are this year.Im 14,almost 15 and actually 13 years from today i was adopted from peru...on mothers day

I don't think they will allow you to come into the country with livestock like that. If at all even possible, your talking 4+ carriers, food bowls, water bottles, vet checks and certificates for all animals, and huge fees. For four animals expect $400 for shipping alone.

Guinea_Gal said:

And i thought having 6 was a lot of guinea pigs. I hate to think about my pets being eaten, but it is the same thing as eating dogs in china, although it is depressing.

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No part of China eats dogs.
In the southern coastal areas, sometimes civet cats (larger and more intelligent than house cats) are eaten, since there is a large native population, but that's about it. SARS and bird flu concern put a real damper on this practice.

The only type of meat that is very popular in China is chicken. Some asian cultures have eaten dogs in the past, vietnamese, korean, etc., but modern times it is very rare. In Vietnam today, it is technically illegal.

China has many problems, like forced child labor and democratic supression, but dog eating is not one of them. It is important to differentiate between asian cultures rather than to lump them all into one group simply because they are 'over there'.

Also I am against eating cavies, I mean some cavies are more intelligent and self-aware than some humans. I don't think we should eat intelligent creatures, especially not ones that are self-aware.

I don't think we should eat intelligent creatures, especially not ones that are self-aware.

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All creatures have some form of intelligence. Where do you draw that line? And how do you measure intelligence in an animal anyway? You can't use human tests on an animal.

OOps, sorry. I must have heard wrong. I know that some country in Asia does. . . Japan?
Hmmmm. . .

The largest known country (That I know of anyway) that eats dogs regularly is Korea. They had banned the practice of eating dogs prior to the 1988 summer Olympics, but it never really disappeared and they are served in most restaurants in that country. The Fillipines also partake in this practice along with many other smaller asian countries. There are some people in Japan and China that eat dog, but it is not as mainstream as it is in these other countries.

Sabriel said:

All creatures have some form of intelligence. Where do you draw that line? And how do you measure intelligence in an animal anyway? You can't use human tests on an animal.

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Intelligence can be measured subjectively, ie. by the ability an animal has to learn new behaviors and/or adapt its behavior in useful ways (acting on its own). Also by the reasoning ability of the animal to forsee consequences of its own actions and use that reasoning to determine its own actions. In this way, a modern domesticated guinea pig has more intelligence than many human adults, like (many) politicians or people who win "darwin awards".

Being self-aware is another measure of intelligence, that is, does the guinea pig know it is a guinea pig (vs. a human) and that its owner is a human (vs. another much bigger pig) and so on. We know this is true from the sounds guinea pigs make and the fact the guinea pig makes the wheep-wheep-wheep sound only to get the attention of its human owner. A pig in the wild does not make this sound, nor do pigs use this sound to get the attention of each other. Likewise, we know that pigs can have dreams, and dreaming requires some notion of self-identity as well as the concept of reality vs. fantasy, real vs. unreal.

In addition to intelligence, we also need to consider that pigs are social herd animals. Just like a human family, a herd is a larger entity, and removing one animal from an existing herd can have dire consequences for the herd. It's just like the way people object to killing certain types of birds because they mate for life-- and killing one of a pair will also cause the other to become depressed and eventually die.

Chickens are able to understand that a hidden object still exists.This is beyond the capacity of most toddlers. Is a chicken therefore an intelligent animal?

The dirt under my feet has more intelligence then some politicians. I just can't understand how people can classify some animals an "too smart to be eaten" and some as dumb enough. Pigs are highly intelligent creatures yet they are regularly eaten.

To me, if something has feelings and if someone has feeling for it (I'm sure there is someone out there with a pet cow) then I can't eat it.

Just because people do things, or do them regularly, does not mean they are okay.

Any animal that is intelligent and self-aware has the capacity to suffer. By all means, we should not impose suffering for no purpose where it can be avoided.

I posted in another thread about why scientifically, cavies are a terribly inefficient food source relative to larger vegetarian animals. There is no way to justify this suffering in terms of eating Cavies.

As far as eating other animals, there is a concept best described as the 'circle of nature', ie. out of the 'lion king' movie by disney if you want a popular culture reference. Like we discussed in the other thread, a cow or other large vegetarian (goats or other animals where cows are not viable) does serve a purpose in efficient food production and use of land. People can't eat grass, but cows can eat the grass, and then people can eat the cows, etc. Too much agriculture -- overfarming -- can ruin the natural environment of an area.

Too bad that's the old type of cattle raising, though, modern cattle farms (vs. free range cattle of the old west) are just as damaging to the environment, if not moreso.

i find it really interesting how most westernized cultures are groomed to accept trivialities of other cultures as ok, even if you would personally consider it horrible. what if there was a nation of cannibals, would that be ok, just because it was 'their culture'

seriously, where do you draw the line

Sparky, that is Political Correctness, not all people in western cultures are like that. Some of us despise things like Political Correctness and moral relativism.