The Importance of Rescue over Retail
Every Saturday, Saskia Chiesa, Director of LA Guinea Pig Rescue, and her team are busy providing essential services like health checks, nail trims, and adoptions to their surrendered guinea pigs.
In this issue, Saskia highlights the impact of pet store purchases and champions the importance of supporting rescues. Join her as she straight talk’s the harsh truth behind breeding factories and advocates for adopting guinea pigs to ensure humane treatment across the USA.
Okay, so this is a tough one to tackle. As the Director of LA Guinea Rescue, I ensure we provide a wide range of services to guinea pigs and their caretakers. My favorite day at the rescue is Saturday when we are especially busy with health checks, nail trims, bubble baths, and all-important adoptions. I also get to snuggle many furry wee ones and talk with their mums and dads.
As a rescue, we do not take in discarded animals from a breeder looking to offload animals that are no longer useful; this would create more space for the breeder to continue breeding. I also will only go on a field rescue if it’s agreed that I am taking all the guinea pigs’ home with me, or at the very least ALL the females, so the breeding ends. I need to end whatever is happening and not allow the breeding to continue.
The Backstory
Guinea pig people, in general, are very proud of their little ones and often share each one's full life story in full-colour detail. By being a good listener, I learn a lot about each guinea pig and also the guinea pig's parent. This helps me understand the full picture better and allows me to provide better support and advice when asked. One question I always ask if the info was not provided in the initial conversation is where the guinea pig was before it came to live with the family.
Don’t Feel Bad!
Most first guinea pigs are purchased at pet stores. This information is often conveyed with shame and guilt because we would likely all agree that rescuing is better than supporting the breeding factories that supply pet shops with live guinea pig merchandise. I tell them not to feel bad; most people who buy from a pet shop do so because they are unaware there is even such a thing as a guinea pig rescue. Most of the time, people buy one guinea pig at a pet store, and when the animal is home, they start researching and find out about us and the rescue community. Every weekend, at least one visitor fits this scenario, and now that they know, they will not return to a shop to buy guinea pigs in the future; they will only adopt and not shop.
Recognizing the Difference Between Buying and Rescuing
Another scenario is where people say that they rescued a guinea pig from a pet store. Many of us are torn when we see a sad-looking or sickly baby in a store, and many of us will want to save it. Let's talk about this for a moment.
Did we make a difference? We sure did for that particular guinea pig, but only for that one. By doing this, we have also just fed the horrific machine that cranks the babies out and the other machine that sells them to us. So, we have become part of that bigger picture and, dare I say, an "enabler" of this heartless trade. The ‘rescued’ guinea pig will be replaced with a new one immediately, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle.
Understanding Breeding Farms & Factories
So, where do those baby guinea pigs sold in pet stores come from? Most of them come from "breeding factories", as I call them. These unscrupulous companies supply the pet shops with all the animals you typically find in that pet store. They often operate from commercial warehouses where you will find row upon row of bins containing groups of breeding guinea pigs.
The Health Challenges They Face
It is ground zero for infectious ailments such as fungal skin infections like ringworm, upper respiratory infections, pneumonia, and nasty parasites like lice and mange mites. So much misery. The pellet fed to these poor guineas is probably cheap and low quality. I do not believe that hay is given to these guineas, and I know for sure that fruits and veggies are never on the menu. Sick animals at these facilities are unlikely to receive veterinary care, and sick baby guinea pigs are routinely shipped to stores and sold to the public.
I have been told by managers and employees of pet shops that if a guinea pig comes in sick, it is often shipped right back to the supplier. Now, think for a moment: If the animal survived the trip back, do you think that loving hands and hearts await them? The answer is no, and my heart aches as I write this.
The Breeding Cycle
Pet stores in need of new guinea pigs to sell will call one of these baby farms and factories and place another order. Babies are then removed from one of those bins, put in a box, and shipped to the store. Here in the US, they are transported by a company such as UPS or FedEx, and it will be similar in other countries. The treatment at the stores is not much better either. Tiny, badly ventilated aquariums hold young guinea pigs that are fed hay and pellets only - no veggies. Sick and pregnant guinea pigs are sold every single day in thousands across the world.
Heartbreaking Realities
Seeing these babies at a shop is heartbreaking but know this: For every guinea pig we buy, another is impregnated to produce more babies. That is the direct result of that purchase we just made. The breeding females live only for that purpose - to birth babies in back-to-back litters until their little bodies can no longer produce. And when those piggies are no longer useful, they are euthanised (though killed is a better word for it), and I am not sure of the method that is used. There is no information about that and many other things. These companies are notoriously secretive; one can only imagine the horrors behind those closed doors. This heartless profiting off the misery of these guinea pigs must stop. And the only way to do this is to stop buying them.
Don't Feed the Beast
The end goal of any rescue the LAGPR undertakes is to stop breeding, not enable it. That is the same for rescues worldwide. Please avoid stores that sell guinea pigs. Don't give them a penny of your hard-earned money. Don’t feed the beast. Buy your supplies from another company that doesn't engage in these practices. Don't be part of the problem when you can directly enact change through your actions.
In this issue, Saskia highlights the impact of pet store purchases and champions the importance of supporting rescues. Join her as she straight talk’s the harsh truth behind breeding factories and advocates for adopting guinea pigs to ensure humane treatment across the USA.
Okay, so this is a tough one to tackle. As the Director of LA Guinea Rescue, I ensure we provide a wide range of services to guinea pigs and their caretakers. My favorite day at the rescue is Saturday when we are especially busy with health checks, nail trims, bubble baths, and all-important adoptions. I also get to snuggle many furry wee ones and talk with their mums and dads.
As a rescue, we do not take in discarded animals from a breeder looking to offload animals that are no longer useful; this would create more space for the breeder to continue breeding. I also will only go on a field rescue if it’s agreed that I am taking all the guinea pigs’ home with me, or at the very least ALL the females, so the breeding ends. I need to end whatever is happening and not allow the breeding to continue.
The Backstory
Guinea pig people, in general, are very proud of their little ones and often share each one's full life story in full-colour detail. By being a good listener, I learn a lot about each guinea pig and also the guinea pig's parent. This helps me understand the full picture better and allows me to provide better support and advice when asked. One question I always ask if the info was not provided in the initial conversation is where the guinea pig was before it came to live with the family.
Don’t Feel Bad!
Most first guinea pigs are purchased at pet stores. This information is often conveyed with shame and guilt because we would likely all agree that rescuing is better than supporting the breeding factories that supply pet shops with live guinea pig merchandise. I tell them not to feel bad; most people who buy from a pet shop do so because they are unaware there is even such a thing as a guinea pig rescue. Most of the time, people buy one guinea pig at a pet store, and when the animal is home, they start researching and find out about us and the rescue community. Every weekend, at least one visitor fits this scenario, and now that they know, they will not return to a shop to buy guinea pigs in the future; they will only adopt and not shop.
Recognizing the Difference Between Buying and Rescuing
Another scenario is where people say that they rescued a guinea pig from a pet store. Many of us are torn when we see a sad-looking or sickly baby in a store, and many of us will want to save it. Let's talk about this for a moment.
Did we make a difference? We sure did for that particular guinea pig, but only for that one. By doing this, we have also just fed the horrific machine that cranks the babies out and the other machine that sells them to us. So, we have become part of that bigger picture and, dare I say, an "enabler" of this heartless trade. The ‘rescued’ guinea pig will be replaced with a new one immediately, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle.
Understanding Breeding Farms & Factories
So, where do those baby guinea pigs sold in pet stores come from? Most of them come from "breeding factories", as I call them. These unscrupulous companies supply the pet shops with all the animals you typically find in that pet store. They often operate from commercial warehouses where you will find row upon row of bins containing groups of breeding guinea pigs.
The Health Challenges They Face
It is ground zero for infectious ailments such as fungal skin infections like ringworm, upper respiratory infections, pneumonia, and nasty parasites like lice and mange mites. So much misery. The pellet fed to these poor guineas is probably cheap and low quality. I do not believe that hay is given to these guineas, and I know for sure that fruits and veggies are never on the menu. Sick animals at these facilities are unlikely to receive veterinary care, and sick baby guinea pigs are routinely shipped to stores and sold to the public.
I have been told by managers and employees of pet shops that if a guinea pig comes in sick, it is often shipped right back to the supplier. Now, think for a moment: If the animal survived the trip back, do you think that loving hands and hearts await them? The answer is no, and my heart aches as I write this.
The Breeding Cycle
Pet stores in need of new guinea pigs to sell will call one of these baby farms and factories and place another order. Babies are then removed from one of those bins, put in a box, and shipped to the store. Here in the US, they are transported by a company such as UPS or FedEx, and it will be similar in other countries. The treatment at the stores is not much better either. Tiny, badly ventilated aquariums hold young guinea pigs that are fed hay and pellets only - no veggies. Sick and pregnant guinea pigs are sold every single day in thousands across the world.
Heartbreaking Realities
Seeing these babies at a shop is heartbreaking but know this: For every guinea pig we buy, another is impregnated to produce more babies. That is the direct result of that purchase we just made. The breeding females live only for that purpose - to birth babies in back-to-back litters until their little bodies can no longer produce. And when those piggies are no longer useful, they are euthanised (though killed is a better word for it), and I am not sure of the method that is used. There is no information about that and many other things. These companies are notoriously secretive; one can only imagine the horrors behind those closed doors. This heartless profiting off the misery of these guinea pigs must stop. And the only way to do this is to stop buying them.
Don't Feed the Beast
The end goal of any rescue the LAGPR undertakes is to stop breeding, not enable it. That is the same for rescues worldwide. Please avoid stores that sell guinea pigs. Don't give them a penny of your hard-earned money. Don’t feed the beast. Buy your supplies from another company that doesn't engage in these practices. Don't be part of the problem when you can directly enact change through your actions.
