2 guinea pigs dumped in the woods

[Catherine]

Someone was cruel enough to dump two guinea pigs in the Dorset woods. It is cold and dangerous out there and they are lucky that a good person found them soon enough and contacted the RSPCA.

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/...in-dorset/

I hope they find whoever did it. Guinea pigs get so frightened. My little Flora was found in a city park and she is still very timid. It has taken over a year to make her feel safe.
These two guinea pigs would have been so cold and frightened. What kind of person does a thing like that.

[Cibach]

I really can't get my head around cases like this. There are so many places you could take animals to have them rehomed, even if it was just a police station or similar place. There is absolutely no reason to dump them outside. The excuse I have heard is that they are setting them free and giving them a chance to live in the wild. If I typed what I thought about that then the bad language filter would explode!!

This is euthanasia by the back door and nobody should think otherwise. As you know, my Marigold was from a group that was dumped just before the snows came and I cringe to think of it. She has had 4 mostly healthy, happy years with us and is still going strong. She has had issues caused by being dumped but they have been dealt with and she is a contented piggy.
Karma will get them in the end!

[Tobi]

Oh poor little things! How can anyone do this?
So dumb of whoever thinks they would be fine out there.....Guinea Pigs are not built to 'live in the wild' out in the woods like this. They are a quick snack for a fox -simple.

Thank goodness they were rescued in time.

[Catherine]

I don't think guinea pigs as we know them were ever a wild animal. So there is no such thing as returning them to the wild. As you say it is a form of euthanasia(for those to cheap to pay a vet).

If they really have this need to "return" them to a more natural climate, I suggest they fly them to South America.

People like that are so selfish and cruel.

I still shudder to think of Marigold out side like that. That was a most fortunate rescue.
I wonder how many piggies end up as snacks for foxes and hawks. They would have no way to protect themselves of hide. It is just such cruel behavior.

[Catherine]

It has become an epidemic of dumping. Three more piggies were dumped.
http://www.westbriton.co.uk/RSPCA-appeal...story.html

They were more than just scared. They could have died from the cold.

[Cibach]

Sadly, this happens a lot. There always seems to be at least 1 piggy at the rescue that has been abandoned in this way. We are always grateful that they find their way to the rescue, but find ourselves wondering how many are not found. It seems that Guinea pigs, particularly, are seen as "disposable" pets and it breaks my heart.

[Catherine]

I just don't understand why they dump them outside. The fact that they were left in a box with food tells you the people knew they could not survive in the wild. Guinea pigs are so used to being cared for that they would not survive in the wilds of a back yard. They do not know what to eat or where to hide.

Sadly many are probably never found, or at least not found by people. Hawks and foxes would take care of them pretty quick. We have coyotes here and they grab peoples dogs from their back yards. Abandoned guinea pigs and rabbits wouldn't stand a chance.

Years ago when I got Frodo from the animal shelter they told me he was a stray. I thought they were being silly, now I realize, he was probably found outside.

I could probably go for walks in High Park(big city park not far from me) and find guinea pigs. I know they find rabbits all the time.

People make me so mad sometimes.

[Cibach]

(01-10-2015, 04:28 PM)Catherine Wrote: I don't think guinea pigs as we know them were ever a wild animal.

I have heard it said that domestic guinea pigs are as far from wild piggies as a chihuahua is from a wolf.
They have lived with people for thousands of years as a food source, and in Europe, at least, they have been pets for at least 500 to 600 hundred years. There's a portrait in one of the galleries in London of an Elizabethan family (painted at the time) and one of the children is holding a pet guinea pig.
We owe them a duty of care as we bred them to be what we wanted and in so doing robbed them of what they need to survive in the wild.

[Catherine]

I did not realize that we had domesticated guinea pigs for so long. We do have a duty of care towards them. I am sure they are incapable of living wild. They seem to have no interest in "escaping". My guinea pig enclosures are open and the front edge is only 3-4 in high. They could get out anytime, but they don't. They stand there watching me prepare food and they call to me, but they never think of jumping out and coming to me for the food.

We have created a dependent species. We have created a great many dependent species and we have a responsibility towards all of them.

Oddly, I think dwarf hamsters would be able to live wild. I had some who moved out of their cages and lived under book cases and other weird places. I let them do it because I wanted to see what they would do. They set up stores of food before they moved out and would come back once a week for more food. You could take the hamster out of the wild, but you couldn't take the wild out of the hamster.