I'm new here, just a little intro

[Paula]

Let me clarify a few things.

1. There is no shame in buying pigs from pet stores if you just don't know any better. We all have to start somewhere, and with pet stores making it oh so easy to walk in and buy an animal, there's no realistic expectation that everyone in every place would or should know about adoption.

2. However. When a person does all the research and knows the horrors of pet stores and still makes the choice to buy from a pet store and perpetuate that cycle for any number of the excuses that are given all too often ("There aren't any rescues near me," "It's too far to drive to a rescue," "I didn't want to wait until there was a pig available in a rescue") well, there is shame in that, and there should be. Because it's a selfish choice. In the day and age of CraigsList and Kijiji and Petfinder and a number of other resources, there is no reason a person can't opt to adopt rather than support a pet store that generally in turn supports a breeding mill.

3. Owning and caring for a guinea pig - or other pet - is not the natural born right some seem to feel that it is. It is a choice. It's not a need, it's something you want. So there's most certainly no need to race off to the pet store and buy that animal because you have to have it. You don't.

4. They all deserve good homes. They all deserve happy endings. But the truth of the matter is that precious few of those in pet stores actually get it. Because they are impulse buys. They are dumped or rehomed time and time again because the ability to walk in and buy one - like you would a TV - doesn't exactly instill in the new owner any sense of commitment or responsibility for what it is - a living thing - with needs and rights and feelings.

5. Buying an animal from a pet store is good for that one animal, yes. But, as I've said, it ensures that there will be more available, more will be bred, and more will be sold. It's a cycle that HAS to end somewhere.

6. It is not a "charity project" and the notion of it being some fleeting desire and dismissed as such is offensive. This forum and a number of its members are devoted to seeing guinea pigs and other animals live good, healthy lives and providing information to owners to enable that. We do not encourage or promote buying animals from pet stores or supporting animal-selling pet stores because it is a direct contradiction with seeing guinea pigs live better. Petstores promote and perpetuate cruelty, and until enough people are willing to step up and say that enough is enough, and stop buying from them, they will continue to do so. So it's not a matter of "making someone feel bad" for a choice they've made. It's a matter of providing enough education and supporting facts to that - hopefully - people won't be so selfish as to run right off to a pet store and buy an animal while others are available in shelters or private rehomes.

7. The only thing that's turning this into one of "those" threads, as I see it, is all the people jumping in to insist that since they all need good homes, it's okay that buying from a pet store saves one and condemns others. It's not.

8. The OP has made her choice and she has her pigs. She's here to learn everything she can to provide them the best that she's able, and that's to be commended. It is possible that they are pregnant, sick, or infested with mites. Not necessarily likely, but it's definitely possible. As such, it's highly advisable that she find a competent cavy savvy vet before she needs one, and I think that's really the only message that some of the earlier posters were trying to get across.

 

[utsarah]

I've gotten a lot of negativity on my "intro" post as well.

I registered here to get helpful information about my new pets, not to be treated like a piece of garbage.

I've never encountered a forum that treated its new people with such hostility. It is a shame. It seems like there is some good information on this site, but I think a lot of people will register, get flamed and leave. In the end it only hurts the guinea pigs.

 

[mandamoo]

well said utsarah

 

[Paula]

I've gotten a lot of negativity on my "intro" post as well.

I've reviewed the thread in question, and don't see how it's "negativity" that people don't come racing in to congratulate you on making the well-used excuse that there are no rescues in your area so you went ahead and bought pigs anyway.

I registered here to get helpful information about my new pets, not to be treated like a piece of garbage.

You and the OP are alike in the fact that you both did your research and knowing that pet stores are awful places to buy animals, chose to do it anyway, because you didn't want to wait, or drive very far, or whatever the reason of the hour is. You both made the choice to come to a blatantly pro-rescue, pro-adoption forum and flagrantly annouce that despite knowing better, despite understanding all the reasons not to, you both chose to go ahead and buy a pig from a pet store anyway. You differ from her in that she actually seems to want to move on - which is perfectly fine - whereas you seem to want to keep coming back and picking a fight.

What's done is done. You aren't going to get members of this forum to pat you on the back for doing the very thing we advocate quite strongly against. If you wish to learn and take better care of your pigs, that's great. You're welcome to do so. But there isn't any reason to continue this argument, here or in your own thread, because you aren't ever going to convince the moderators or many members of this forum that buying the pigs in the pet store was the right thing - it wasn't - and I strongly suspect, given your attitude, that you aren't going to acknowledge that there in fact might have been a better way. Way it goes. Let's all get over it and go on.

 

[Sarah84]

I made a promise to myself not to come back and post, but after receiving a PM from utsarah I felt I need to come back, and I have this to say:

After thinking about this post, and seeing that while I seem to be the one "acting silly" while trying to defend a person who obviously (by joining) wants to take care of her pigs properly, I find it extremely funny that most of these posts are bashing her, myself, and a few others. Utsarah also brought a good point in when PMing me. She said the 2 rescues she contacted wouldn't adopt to her because 1 she lived to far away, and 2 she had a child under the age of 6. So from what I'm reading from other posts, is then she shouldn't have gone to the pet store and picked out pigs after TRYING to rescue.

I have never in all my years of being on chat forums, or boards come across so many extremely close minded people. It's truly sad. Utsarah and 3newpigs I have sent you both PM's with some information I think you will enjoy. Take the opportunity to get away from people who obviously don't want to help you, and feel the need to bash you because of 1 thing you have done, wether it be right or wrong, you've made the decision, and your doing the best you can to take care of your pigs. It's sad that while there is so much good information here, so many will not feel comfortable enough to use the information, and ask questions here for fear of being criticized for a choice they made. When, as UtSarah pointed out in the end its the pigs that suffer the most. Sadly enough I'm sure that someone out there who had bought pigs from a pet store after being criticized here has probably returned them. Sad to think what may have happened all because someone is stuck on the fact that we must adopt, even when at the time we have felt that wasn't do-able. Purely a Shame.

 

[3newpigs]

I'm done. I'm sorry to have created this post. I wasn't fully aware of the "horrors" of petstores until AFTER I got my pigs and joined this site. I did some research on HOW TO TAKE CARE OF THE PIGS. How and what to feed them, how big of a cage they needed, whether or not they would be a good choice of pet for our family. I did run across the statement "adopt if you can". I tried, obviously not hard enough according to you all. Not everyone is the same and unless you have been to a site like this you probably have no idea of the "horrors" of petstores. I didn't feel bashed at first. But after some of you continue to come back and push your point about adopting and what a terrible person I am for contributing to petstores, when I have already said I made a mistake and it won't happen again. Then Paula comes back and puts up links to guinea pigs for adoption just to prove me wrong. Sorry. I wasn't aware of how to FIND those links when I was looking for guinea pigs.

Your point was taken from the very beginning, there is no reason to keep hacking away at me. What do you want me to do, take the pigs back and dump them at the store, then go rescue some?


Thank you to those of you who were nice. But unfortunately this forum seems to be run by people who are just too narrow minded and holier than thou for my tastes.

 

[3newpigs]

I also wanted to say that giving me the advice to find a vet, saying the pigs may possibly have mites or my possibly be pregnant, did not offend me. But some said they likely are sick and pregnant. That's not very nice. Who's to say if I adopted a pig from craigslist it wouldn't be sick or pregnant? I'm not asking anyone to pat me on the back, I am just asking to stop going on and on about what a mistake I've made. What good does that do? If you were trying to run me off, you did an awesome job of it. I wish I had read some of these posts before I PURCHASED my pigs but I didn't. I only read things that answered questions that I googled. A lot of them were on the guineapigcages home page. I didn't realize guinea pig rescuing was such a big thing. Sorry. Now I know. I didn't set out to support the cruelty of anything.

 

[PiggieJewel]

Hi. I'm glad you found these forums and are reading all you can about how to care for your new piggies!

People in these forums are so passionate about stopping the cruelty involved in breeding and selling Guinea Pigs in the stores. Those piggies lead terrible lives, are used only to make money. As long as the stores have people coming in to buy piggies, the terrible cycle just keeps on going. Yes, the pet store piggies need to be loved, too; but they'll just be replaced with more "merchandise" from a mill type breeder. The cruelty has to stop somewhere. Adopting isn't really that hard, and there are ways around the "location" situation. People here are willing to help out with transporting piggies to a new home, setting up "trains" to get a piggie from shelter to the new parents. If one has to wait for piggies to show up for adoption, they can do lots of research and make sure they really are able to truly CARE for the piggies.

It does seem that you want the best for your girls, and I hope they aren't pregnant or carrying illnesses. There are many threads in these forums that have advice about nutrition, cages, medical needs. I have had Guinea Pigs for a few years and I've learned new stuff from being here. The Guinea Lynx site is a treasure trove of medical information, too.

You have a good idea about using grids to form a "corral" for play time. If you have any thrift shops around, look for used, rubber backed rugs. Those can be put under the newspaper during floor time then thrown in the washer for cleaning.

Hang in there and keep doing the research. You don't need to post anything if you feel like you're being "attacked." Just go forth and give your piggies the best life possible.

 

[Lorvoll]

Welcome 3newpigs! I'm glad you've found this forum for the benefit of your guinea pigs. Please take a deep breath, sit back, and hang in there - the information you find will be priceless, you'll learn the different personalities of the members, and along the way learn better how to extract the advice you seek. Communicating via messages can sometimes become taken out of context, or sound more harsh than its meant. You'll learn to consider the source, withdraw the pertinent information, and your guinea pigs will be better off for it in the end.