MommyOfMany
Cavy Star, Photo Contest Winner
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2011
- Posts
- 225
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2011
- Messages
- 225
Today, I went undercover as an idiotic potential guinea pig owner (I actually have 6 pigs, and have been on this website for a long time so I have the proper C&C cages and such) in a breeder's household one grade above me. I stuffed my hair in a hat and all, just to be safe. I first learned about this when my friend (let's call her Sally), who is in the same grade as this breeder (who we'll call Emma) began to look for a guinea pig to adopt (she already had one pig, and she wanted to find another to keep the first company). Emma said that she bred guinea pigs and had one sow who had gotten too old to breed and would give Sally the pig for free. Sally went over to Emma's house to pick her up and saw her setup, which was extremely horrifying. The pig now lives a happy and healthy life (besides possibly being pregnant, Sally is still trying to figure out if she was housed with boars or not-most likely, yes) with Sally, being socialized daily and fed a proper diet. Sally told me about the situation, and I decided something had to be done. One of Emma's pigs had recently had pups, and she posted pictures to FaceBook, where Sally saw them. We headed over to Emma's house, claiming I was thinking about purchasing a pig or two. I also tried to make it seem as if I had no prior knowledge of guinea pig care. Once we got to her house, somebody Emma lives with, who will be called Dotty, let us in. Emma was not at the house at the time, but Dotty still let us poke around the guinea pig room for about an hour. I asked her if I could take pictures because my mother wanted to see them, and she agreed. I took over 140 pictures and 2 videos. At one point, Dotty actually left us alone in the guinea pig room while she either got her rats or was talking with friends. Emma used to have over 40 guinea pigs, including her "personal pigs" who she shows and will not sell. Not too long ago, she sold off the majority of her pigs and is breeding them again. I believe these pigs are inbred, considering they all have variations of the same colors and patterns. I asked many dumb questions:
Q-"So how much room does one guinea pig need?" A-she pulls out a plastic tub, about 1.5 ft by 1 ft and says "Two could easily live in here"
Q-"Can rats and guinea pigs live together? A- She says "Oh yeah, but the guinea pigs can just get scared by them" and puts one of her rats in the cage with several guinea pigs. The guinea pigs freaked out and tried to run away.
Q-"So these pigs are just a day old? Why do they have all of this fur?" A- "I don't know, they're just weird and come out with fur. I'd rather breed rats, but if guinea pigs stayed this small I'd totally breed them."
Each pig had a metal ear tag on, except for the newborns. One of Dotty's rats had been attacked by a hairless rat, which she put up for adoption on CraigsList. She didn't get her rat veterinary care, despite him not being able to walk on his injured leg. She then adopted two more rats to replace her old one.
Pine shavings, which Dotty told me to get at the Tractor Supply Store, were very rough and undoubtedly not kiln-dried. The levels of ammonia were so high in that room I could smell it just from walking into the house. The room was a mess.
I feel I properly portrayed myself as a novice to the guinea pig world. While I was dying on the inside from the look of despair and fear on the faces of these poor guinea pigs, I acted bubbly, bouncing around the room and taking pictures while saying things like "Oh my god, they're so cute!!". I nearly puked when I said "I wish my mom would let me breed guinea pigs, but she would never go for it." *shudder*It just goes so far against everything I've preached and believe in. I almost broke down when I got out of that house.
I will try to go back to the house once she's bred more pigs to gather more convincing evidence for the ASPCA. I feel that will be a stronger case against Emma, paired with the fact that Dotty told me Emma doesn't have a license to breed and show, which is supposedly necessary for breeding. I'll have to look into it.
I don't know if I should make an album, post the pictures to this thread, or include a link to Google Picasa where the pictures are. Either way I want to show you them. Which do you guys think would work best? I will not go the bed without posting these.
My heart hurts for those pigs and I will do everything possible to get them out of this situation.
Q-"So how much room does one guinea pig need?" A-she pulls out a plastic tub, about 1.5 ft by 1 ft and says "Two could easily live in here"
Q-"Can rats and guinea pigs live together? A- She says "Oh yeah, but the guinea pigs can just get scared by them" and puts one of her rats in the cage with several guinea pigs. The guinea pigs freaked out and tried to run away.
Q-"So these pigs are just a day old? Why do they have all of this fur?" A- "I don't know, they're just weird and come out with fur. I'd rather breed rats, but if guinea pigs stayed this small I'd totally breed them."
Each pig had a metal ear tag on, except for the newborns. One of Dotty's rats had been attacked by a hairless rat, which she put up for adoption on CraigsList. She didn't get her rat veterinary care, despite him not being able to walk on his injured leg. She then adopted two more rats to replace her old one.
Pine shavings, which Dotty told me to get at the Tractor Supply Store, were very rough and undoubtedly not kiln-dried. The levels of ammonia were so high in that room I could smell it just from walking into the house. The room was a mess.
I feel I properly portrayed myself as a novice to the guinea pig world. While I was dying on the inside from the look of despair and fear on the faces of these poor guinea pigs, I acted bubbly, bouncing around the room and taking pictures while saying things like "Oh my god, they're so cute!!". I nearly puked when I said "I wish my mom would let me breed guinea pigs, but she would never go for it." *shudder*It just goes so far against everything I've preached and believe in. I almost broke down when I got out of that house.
I will try to go back to the house once she's bred more pigs to gather more convincing evidence for the ASPCA. I feel that will be a stronger case against Emma, paired with the fact that Dotty told me Emma doesn't have a license to breed and show, which is supposedly necessary for breeding. I'll have to look into it.
I don't know if I should make an album, post the pictures to this thread, or include a link to Google Picasa where the pictures are. Either way I want to show you them. Which do you guys think would work best? I will not go the bed without posting these.
My heart hurts for those pigs and I will do everything possible to get them out of this situation.
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