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Me and my stupid mouth......I really need to think first

RodentCuddles

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For those who don't know, I'm a teenage girl and with the help and support of my mum I run the only guinea pig rescue in NZ.

Today someone emailed me a note saying:

HI - would you be happy to let one female guinea pig go so I can mate her with my very lonely male? My kids would enjoy that - they love them so much... but we have just had to let all our females go as he is the son and brother - he is lonely. thanks.

Of course...I'm such a stupid idiot I wrote down what I was thinking and hit send...before well...thinking...this was my reply...(I looked on our trading site and the trader has 7 guinea pigs for sale)

Hi there,


There is no need to breed guinea pigs.
It has a 20% chance that either the mother or babies will die. It is very dangerous and puts the life of the sow in danger...we do not allow any of our sows to be put into a situation were they could die. They have souls and feelings, it is cruel to put an animal's life on the line for selfish reasons.


There are so many that need good homes, there is no need to bring more into the world.
We have 22 guinea pigs in our rescue, with 15 on a waiting list to come in..this IS because of breeders. It IS their fault that there are so many homeless guinea pigs out there.


Please read through this page - https://www.cavyspirit.com/breeding.htm


There is nothing for your kids to enjoy about learning how people risk the lives of other animals just for their own joy..it is a horrible lesson to teach kids.


We are a rescue. We do not agree with breeding nor do we breed guinea pigs. I hope after reading the link I gave you will understand that breeding guinea pigs is never a good thing to do.
If you really love them. Care for them and spoil them. Don't risk their lives.


Cheers,
Hartley


They then quickly emailed me back saying:

Wow


Wow that was a lecture.... we just wanted to have one set of babies and keep them - give Mum and Dad guinea pig a chance also to have a family.... we do not intend to have "homeless" guinea pigs....


Maybe before you send such an email you could ask my intention of "breeding" first.....


Does that mean you are not willing to let one female have a male mate and be given the chance to raise her own family?


We have feelings and my kids love guinea pigs and take very good care of them....


Wow, i am gob smacked at your reply.


I'm not sure if I should reply or not..because I'm still annoyed at them and even their second reply..

So what I'm asking here is really...how do you do it? How do you wait, sit and calm down then reply?

Is there anyway for me to make a thing on my gmail so I can't reply to an email until 2 minutes after I've opened it? I think even after calming down I would of written the same thing..but for when this happens again what should I say?
 

MrWhistles

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Your response was not rude at all IMHO.
I would expect any rescue to respond the same way you did.

Is there anyway for me to make a thing on my gmail so I can't reply to an email until 2 minutes after I've opened it? I think even after calming down I would of written the same thing..but for when this happens again what should I say?

I do not think there is such a thing. However, I don't use GMail. So maybe someone else who does would have the answer to that question.


Keep in mind, when you're going against anyone's personal views or wishes, like this situation, there is more than likely going to be offense taken. You could of very easily said "I'm sorry, no. We do not support breeding" and still have gotten a response questioning why you don't support breeding.

It is a touchy subject for all of us. Ignoring the email won't do any good in my eyes. It's better to send them facts like you did than to ignore it and not try to educate them.
 

GreyWish

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I think she needs to know that guineas dont 'raise' a family as soon as the babies are born the father would have to leave and at 3-4 weeks the baby boys would have to leave to AND they would have to invest in a bigger cage for the females chances are 50/50 that the boys will get along with their dad or each other so lets say the mother has 2 girls and 4 boys a nice happy little 2x5 for the girls if they get along well and a huge 2x8-2x9 for the boys and lets say they dont get along 5 2x3s you ask her does she really have room for if something like that were to happen ?
you should tell her to think about that and the fact that they could kill the sow
* bigger and more cages
*10x the money for food and hay
*behavior issues within eachother
*the life of the sow and up to 8 babies
* and they would not be together after birth and 3 weeks the family is split in half the would not be being 'raised'
*they are not people and dont want a baby as much as a person would
i do not run a rescue but i do take in guinea pigs off of craigs list when they are just abandon cause some kid wanted one then didnt i have 14 but i have a friend i take them too when i dont have money for a cage and if anyone knows about money its me and rescues but mine are pets not a rescue so i buy toys and treats all the extras
you tell that lady to think about those things
 

Shelbz

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I think you've handled things remarkably well thus far. Ignorance is extremely frustrating. Your initial response was very appropriate. You now have the choice of either replying, or ignoring her completely.

Personally, I would reply and deal with my anger by considering this woman to be a child; she is certainly as ignorant as one. I would want to make sure she knew exactly what the issues were because she could very easily contact another rescue and omit her intentions; even if she doesn't change her mind I would want her to leave with at least a fraction more knowledge than she began with.

I would explain to her, very carefully, why guinea pigs don't "raise a family", because they are not emotionally invested in their offspring, it is solely an instinctive drive; that, as @GreyWish has pointed out, she will need a crapload of extra space as she will need to separate the boys from the girls (including the father) immediately and if the pups are all female, the father would be lonely again. I would also explain to her that if a complication does arise, her children will have the glorious and wondrous task of burying their beloved pets. Also, as amazed and joyous her children will be, it will be HER responsibility to look after the pups, which can be anything from 1 - 5, if not more. Explain to her that if the males do not get along they will all need separate cages.

Jeez, I'm frustrated for you, ha ha.

Edit: I would also mention that (usually) no breeder starts out with the intention of rehoming their animals, especially ordinary families who want to breed to show their children (and their guinea pig..) the wonders of life. In a lot of circumstances these families intend to keep the pups. However- and this may be a year, two years down the line- usually when reality kicks in the pups, and sometimes the original pairing, end up straight at the rescue door. It may be because of finances, because of veterinary bills, because of fighting or incompatibility between the guinea pigs, or sometimes because of time constraints, etc- but breeding often results in at least one surrendered animal.
 
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pinky

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I'd say that guinea pigs don't form traditional families in any sense so she's not doing them an favors by breeding them. The males need to be separated from the females or she'll end up with a lot more guinea pigs. Males can form bonded groups so taking in more males is a much better idea than risking the life of a female for her own personal pleasure.
 

stray hares

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I hate when people get passive aggressive with their inverted comma usage.

Anyway, you can always have a template saved to work with when faced with this kind of request (dealing with people, fun!). That way you can copy and paste and just have a general reply that you can tweak if you want to each individual, "I want to adopt a guinea pig to breed with..." request.

I would reply to their e-mail. I would probably say something like, "Every guinea pig brought into this world by deliberate breeding means another guinea pig in a shelter or rescue loses his or her chance of gaining a home. If you were involved in the rescue of these small creatures day in and day out, you would understand the importance of not breeding them."

But it's tricky. And, yeah, since you're dealing with people stuff will happen like this all the time unfortunately. Chin up, you didn't do/say anything you shouldn't have.
 

BunnysAndPiggys

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You did the right thing. No rescue should support breeding, and you're going to get an offensive reply no matter how you say it.
But it's so great that you and your mum run a guinea pig rescue!
 

Inle_Rabbit

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You cannot live a life of any worth if you don't offend someone at sometime. This person has an idea in her head about raising guinea pigs, your rescue doesn't adopt out to people who want to breed. End of story. If that upsets the person well, so be it. Don't beat yourself up because someone else has taken offense to your beliefs. There are better things to get upset about, like the fact there are 15 guinea pigs waiting for just foster homes!

On the other hand of dealing with the public. I think a form e-mail that you could just copy and paste in this situation would be a good idea. The e-mail you wrote was pretty good but I'd leave the part out about teaching kids how to risk animals lives. True statement but a little too personal, IMO.

As for a response to this e-mail:

"Does that mean you are not willing to let one female have a male mate and be given the chance to raise her own family?"

Yes, this is exactly what this means.

Have a good day.

~~~~~~

Then don't respond again, it's not worth it.
 

janinehunt

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we have just had to let all our females go as he is the son and brother - he is lonely...

we do not intend to have "homeless" guinea pigs....

We have feelings and my kids love guinea pigs and take very good care of them....

To me, letting go of their other guinea pigs does not constitute good love and care. Now they all need homes so that they can make place for a new female to breed. Once again, the poor guinea pigs are being treated as disposable objects.

I think you've handled the situation admirably.
 

Traysea

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Well said.

Anyway, you can always have a template saved to work with when faced with this kind of request (dealing with people, fun!). That way you can copy and paste and just have a general reply that you can tweak if you want to each individual, "I want to adopt a guinea pig to breed with..." request.

I would reply to their e-mail. I would probably say something like, "Every guinea pig brought into this world by deliberate breeding means another guinea pig in a shelter or rescue loses his or her chance of gaining a home. If you were involved in the rescue of these small creatures day in and day out, you would understand the importance of not breeding them."

But it's tricky. And, yeah, since you're dealing with people stuff will happen like this all the time unfortunately. Chin up, you didn't do/say anything you shouldn't have.
 

rhogan

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I'm pretty sure that anyone who has ever worked with an ethical rescue or worked in rescue would agree with your response 100%. You did absolutely nothing wrong, I however wouldn't feed into anymore. From the response you received back it's obvious this person doesn't really "care" about their guinea pigs or they wouldn't have gotten rid of the females to begin with.

I think you handled it awesomely. Applause to you.
 

RodentCuddles

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Thank you all for replying!

After reading what some of you thought...how some thought I should reply and others thought I should just leave it (which I was planning to do).

Well, I woke up at 6:30am (Saturday sleep in's...huh?) and sent them this email back:



"Does that mean you are not willing to let one female have a male mate and be given the chance to raise her own family?"


Yes, this is exactly what this means.


Every guinea pig brought into this world by deliberate breeding means another guinea pig in a shelter or rescue loses his or her chance of gaining a home. If you were involved in the rescue of these small creatures day in and day out, you would understand the importance of not breeding them.


Guinea Pigs don't "rasie" a family, they are not emotionally invested in their offspring, it is solely an instinctive drive.


If you love guinea pigs, instead of breeding them which does result in risking lives and adding to the homeless population then all you need to do is to go through our adoption process and adopt a single male for your boy so he is no longer very lonely.


I do not understand how if you love your guinea pigs very much, that you can sell them. You wouldn't sell your family members yet you are doing so. Animals are for life, they are not things to trade or sell with.


I would also highly recommend you to look up c&c cages, they are an amazing indoor guinea pig cage which you can make to any size you want. This is the first step to which you can spoil your guinea pigs and show you love them.


Have a good day.
 

CallieLovesPigs

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Your replies aren't rude at all!
They are the truth, and this person is interpreting them wrong.
If they keep emailing you, I would keep responding with the same kind of messages you are doing right now.
You are doing the right thing, good job!
 

GreenConverse

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YOU deserve a round of applause ;) nobody could have handled it better
 

BunnysAndPiggys

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Piggy_

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Your replies definitely carried the appropriate serious tone, and I wouldn't interpret them as rude at all. Whether you want to use similar wording as an automatic reply in the future depends on what your goal is when replying to these messages you get about breeding. Do you want to convince them of your point? Or do you just want to get the facts & serious nature of the request across? Usually people respond more readily to less frank wording (if your goal is to convince people), but then there will always be those that will never change their mind no matter what.

While I will never condone someone being uneducated about any animal under their care, sometimes the best outcome for the animal is to take a nicer-than-you-want-to-be approach to try to encourage the owner to accept the information you're giving them about their animals e.g that it's totally inhumane to intentionally breed guinea pigs!

At the end of the day though, just go with your gut. I have a feeling that this particular person has just made up a bit of a story as to why they want a female for breeding. If they've had the brothers and sisters of their current male in the past, they've already experienced "letting" guinea pigs raise their own family... so their story doesn't check out. Sounds like an amateur breeder trying to make some more money.
 

RodentCuddles

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Yea. I really know I can't just give up...yesterday I told someone who had two 6 week old guinea pigs for sale on trademe that even if someone doesn't want to breed the girl will still already be pregnant...as they stated the whole family was still living together. I told them of the numbers of the homeless guinea pigs and asked them to re-think breeding guinea pigs or at least separate males and females at 3 weeks old and pregnant females from males. But they didn't care at all.

Thanks for your input, I had a call 5 minutes after listing these guinea pigs and two more enquires today, all wanting to buy my babies!! My suggestion to you is... list your guinea pigs on Trade me and you will find loving homes for them just like I always do - without fail... in fact Animates (pet shop) contacted me last time I listed some babies, I gave them to the local store and they were all sold to approved homeswithin a couple of days!
Our children absolutely LOVE the experience of having little baby guinea pigs, they are all loved and cared for beyond what you can imagine so I don't think I am being irresponsible in any way at all!!!


Animates just sells the animals. They don't get a rat's butt what the people want to do with the guinea pig. They just want to sell them to get the money so the people buy their products.
 

Piggy_

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Yea. I really know I can't just give up...yesterday I told someone who had two 6 week old guinea pigs for sale on trademe that even if someone doesn't want to breed the girl will still already be pregnant...as they stated the whole family was still living together. I told them of the numbers of the homeless guinea pigs and asked them to re-think breeding guinea pigs or at least separate males and females at 3 weeks old and pregnant females from males. But they didn't care at all.


Animates just sells the animals. They don't get a rat's butt what the people want to do with the guinea pig. They just want to sell them to get the money so the people buy their products.

Oh man, that must be so frustrating - and draining - coming up against the same brick wall. It's easy to get angry at the complete unwillingness of some people to even consider that what they're doing isn't right for their animals. But at the end of the day, you just have to accept that you tried, and that anything more is out of your power this time round. I find spending time with other "animal people" is a great way to refresh myself and remember that there are actually a lot of people in the world that are totally compassionate and loving and great animal owners. Even coming to this forum is great; what better example is there of people who are dedicated to the care of their guinea pigs? :)
 

PigPandemonium

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(Don't know if someone has said this already, I didn't read all the replies)

I don't think your response was bad, though maybe a bit too harsh. I honestly don't even understand this person's logic. First off, after the female gave birth she'd have to be removed and put in another cage. Plus there is no guarantee that the female will give birth to any males that can be put with the existing male, or any females which, in that case, the female would then be lonely.:confused:
 

GuineaPigster

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For those who don't know, I'm a teenage girl and with the help and support of my mum I run the only guinea pig rescue in NZ.

Today someone emailed me a note saying:

HI - would you be happy to let one female guinea pig go so I can mate her with my very lonely male? My kids would enjoy that - they love them so much... but we have just had to let all our females go as he is the son and brother - he is lonely. thanks.

Of course...I'm such a stupid idiot I wrote down what I was thinking and hit send...before well...thinking...this was my reply...(I looked on our trading site and the trader has 7 guinea pigs for sale)

Hi there,


There is no need to breed guinea pigs.
It has a 20% chance that either the mother or babies will die. It is very dangerous and puts the life of the sow in danger...we do not allow any of our sows to be put into a situation were they could die. They have souls and feelings, it is cruel to put an animal's life on the line for selfish reasons.


There are so many that need good homes, there is no need to bring more into the world.
We have 22 guinea pigs in our rescue, with 15 on a waiting list to come in..this IS because of breeders. It IS their fault that there are so many homeless guinea pigs out there.


Please read through this page - https://www.cavyspirit.com/breeding.htm


There is nothing for your kids to enjoy about learning how people risk the lives of other animals just for their own joy..it is a horrible lesson to teach kids.


We are a rescue. We do not agree with breeding nor do we breed guinea pigs. I hope after reading the link I gave you will understand that breeding guinea pigs is never a good thing to do.
If you really love them. Care for them and spoil them. Don't risk their lives.


Cheers,
Hartley


They then quickly emailed me back saying:

Wow


Wow that was a lecture.... we just wanted to have one set of babies and keep them - give Mum and Dad guinea pig a chance also to have a family.... we do not intend to have "homeless" guinea pigs....


Maybe before you send such an email you could ask my intention of "breeding" first.....


Does that mean you are not willing to let one female have a male mate and be given the chance to raise her own family?


We have feelings and my kids love guinea pigs and take very good care of them....


Wow, i am gob smacked at your reply.


I'm not sure if I should reply or not..because I'm still annoyed at them and even their second reply..

So what I'm asking here is really...how do you do it? How do you wait, sit and calm down then reply?

Is there anyway for me to make a thing on my gmail so I can't reply to an email until 2 minutes after I've opened it? I think even after calming down I would of written the same thing..but for when this happens again what should I say?
I think your response was PERFECT!
Maybe email her back and say: I don't feel comfortable doing it, and I strongly encourage you not to. If you want more than one pig, check out the (# of males you have available) males I have waiting for a new home.
 
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