Glynneath guinea Pig rescue's start to the year.

[Cibach]

(02-05-2016, 04:19 AM)Tobi Wrote: Now where do those Guinea pigs come from, and how do they come to the Rescue? What's their story?
Is it a similar story to many animals who come to Rescues because their owners are moving....getting other pets....are old or ill, and can't look after them any more? Or is it because people get Guinea Pigs on a whim, and maybe for their children, then find they can't cope with their needs?

Well we hear all sorts of stories as to why the piggies are being surrendered. There are all the usual ones, the kids got bored, the home is being sold and the new place has nowhere for the piggies, one partner has left and they were that person's piggies. Mostly they are excuses rather than reasons, but I feel the piggies are better off at the rescue than with people who don't really want them.
The common reason just now is that the children have suddenly become allergic to them. I'd rather people just said that they don't want them any more or that they were more work than they realised than make up excuses.
The saddest one for me was Goldie. She was 7 which is a very good age for a piggy, and had become "too inconvenient" as a new baby had arrived. She was clearly in the last months of her life as she had "shrinking pig" syndrome and when I saw her at the rescue she was depressed and sedentary. Suzy didn't think she would last her 2 week quarantine. My heart went out to her and as soon as we could take her, she came to stay. To my surprise she slotted right into the herd and took up with our similarly aged sow and for the 8 weeks that she lived with us they were inseparable.
She sprang back to life and lived it to the full. The herd embraced her and guided her through her last weeks and saw her to the end, keeping her company and never letting her be alone, right to the end.
Guinea pigs are very family orientated and ours welcomed her into theirs whole heartedly.

There is a small number of rescue "friends" who trawl the Free ads looking for piggies for sale, or worse, "free to a good home". Any "free to a good home" are picked up as soon as possible. Any for sale, the seller is guided to the rescue site and encouraged to give them up rather than sell them. It doesn't always work, but quite a few of the piggies come in this way too.

The rescue capacity is officially 40, but in all the years I've been going there I can think of only 2 occasions when there were that few piggies there. Considering it is run out of a small family home with no official funding I think Suzy does remarkably well!!