This past weekend, the rescue took in several guinea pigs as part of a region-wide effort to save more than 100 guinea pigs from a desperate situation in Pennsylvania.
About the time the "piggie transport" was heading up the Eastern coastline to bring these poor souls to us, we received pictures of some of the guinea pigs immediately after they'd been seized by authorities, as well as the barn in which these animals had been forced to live.
What I saw in those photos made me physically ill.
Bugs could not live safely in this dilapidated, nearly windowless barn...never mind the guinea pigs that had been allowed to run free across the decrepit floor. But rather than passionately rant about the inhumanity of the situation, I'm simply going to let the pictures of the barn and the cages tell the story.
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(Shown here: a food dish, a portion of the barn floor, a couple of cages, and a corner where guinea pigs ran free. Clicking on an image should open a slightly larger copy of it.)
All the guinea pigs rescued had to be treated for mites (and responded well to treatment). All of the females either were confirmed to be pregnant or are suspected to be pregnant (they were running free with unneutered males...pregnancy is inevitable). They were all malnourished and dehydrated and underweight.
The resilience of the guinea pigs now in our care is remarkable. For all the trauma they've been through, and for all the socialization they've been lacking, we see a lot of the trademark guinea pig spirit and spunk in their personalities. With love and proper care during their rehabilitation, they'll make wonderful additions to some homes out there.
This is why we do what we do. This is what your donations, your adoption fees, and your help with fostering allow us to do. We couldn't have come this far without you...and we'll continue to need your help because, sadly, this won't be the last abuse case we see.
Susan...Welcome and thanks for dropping by (and for the link). Hope we'll see you again soon!
Aimee -- The PA situation is the worst I've seen (in person or by way of someone else's photos). It's difficult to see how cruel some people can be. You wonder if there will ever be a day when things like this don't happen anymore. We can only hope.
Posted by: Whitney | September 21, 2006 at 04:29 PM
Your blog is very informative and I'm glad to add it to my resource list! Thanks for doing this worthwhile work.
Posted by: Susan Reynolds | September 19, 2006 at 07:21 PM
We saw these photos on the mccue site, too. They are horrifying. I'm so glad you were able to take a bunch in. Unbelievable to think how thoughtless some people can be.
Posted by: Aimee, PJ and Swingley | September 06, 2006 at 01:52 PM