Is it me or is this piggy poorly?

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We went for a day out today to a local family tourist attraction. They had guinea pigs in the small animals section. All the indoor piggies were clean and healthy, although housed with rabbits and on thick straw..

Sadly there were 2 runs outside with a sleeping compartment attached that were in very poor condition and the occupants weren't great either. To start with the runs and adjoining sleeping compartment was resting on shingle. These didn't sit flat on the shingle and were covered at the bottom with wire mesh. I just visualised the poor piggies feet and legs being torn to pieces, if not broken, attempting to walk along the wire as the shingle was at least an inch below the wire at some points.

There were no water bottles, just bowls and the food bowls consisted of uneaten oats oats and more oats.

In one run was a guinea pig and rabbit together. The rabbit was sitting on the guinea pig licking it's eyes. On inspection the guinea pigs eyes looked sore and the parts below the eyeball that should be white were grey, red and bloodshot. This upset me as it so I decided to bring it up with the manager. Needless to say I got a very frosty reception and was told that they had lived together for 3 years and there was absolutely noting the matter. Am I wrong.... can somebody please advise me ?

She told me that these two runs housed the guinea pigs that were not able to be handled by the public as they were too jumpy. Yet she pulled the pig with the sore eyes out of the hutch and thrust him in my arms. He made no attempt to run and just cuddled up to me. When I brought up the subject of the poor food quality she snatched him back.

What do I do now is the question I ask myself. Can anybody please advise me as I don't want to go into this like a bull in a china shop, despite wanting to.

Many Thanks
Claire
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Or Claire bless him, look at his little eye. Id of legged it with i think. Dont know much about eyes but i think its something called fatty eye. Someone with more knowledge will be able to tell you more I'm sure.

That housing is awful poor piggy feet. :'(
 
The food looks like poor quality mix i use bearts and optium ellets mixed and that loks like a poor second rate version!
That eye does look bad thou and having a rabbit lick it is not going to help it either!
Rabit mouth bacteria and Guinea pig eye bacteria are i would think totally seperate things!
The floors are raised up and i'd never use wire floors even for rabbits!
Where was this as its does not sound good!
I'd complain for you! >:D >:D >:D
 
It does look like fatty eye. I would hand this one over to the RSPCA and see what happens from there.

That mix looks like bird food! 98)
 
There was no hay in any of the guinea pig runs. The base of the sleeping area was an old brown paper sack covered in thick straw.

The rabbit was so big that the poor guinea pig couldn't even get in the sleeping compartment as he was blocking the entrance.


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O believe me we thought about putting him in my bag but we spotted CCTV. I offered to take him and the other two in the other run and give them a home but she wasn't parting with them.
 
There were I think 5 of these hutch like runs in total, all the same wire build. The first with this guinea pig and rabbit, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th with one rabbit only and the last with 2 guinea pigs. All with the same type of food and no hay. Yet the indoor ones had a large area to play with boxes, tunnels various bowls of food and they all looked healthy.

They are so much in the public eye I don't understand how they can get away with it.
 
Try RSPCA Claire if not maybe letter to management. opinting out the animal welfare act might be a good idea. Good luck if I can be of help let me know O0
 
I told her I would inform the RSCPA if she wasn't prepared to consider the fact that the wire floor would hurt their feet and she offered me the use of the office phone.
I told her I would ring them tomorrow but you know my feeling towards the RSPCA Vikki, Sorry.

Having asked around and looked into the place this evening it was infact management that I was speaking to.

Will have a good hard think about it this evening. :-\
 
I don't have much to add to the advice above but if all else fails you could contact your local newspaper. A huge pat on the back to you for being so proactive about it and being brave enough to approach someone in person. Can't believe they think it's fine for them to be kept on a wire floor.
 
I had a similar experience at a farm near me last year. It wasnt as bad as these pictures but still not good and there were mice and bird droppings in the enclosures and the sows had litters or were pregnant and were nearly bald where their hair had fallen out >:( I rang the RSPCA and reported my findings...what was done? a big fat nothing :-\
 
Claire you know my feelings towards the rspca too we both know they will do nothing but sometimes mentioning people will get reported gets something done they might not know the rspca is not proactive when it comes to guineas in our area. more a tactic than a useful solution i know.
If they do not rise to that then if the animals are not being cared for correctly the only thing i can suggest is to go after them privately or publically maybe a letter to the local newspaper outlinin gthe problems...make some noise about it then they might listen and make some changes.
Get Ron to do some of his ace letter writing maybe complain to local tourist information making them aware animals are not cared for correctly.
Will get legal advice from Keith to see if there is anything else you could do. If you could pm me where they are maybe Keith will have some prior knowledge of them.
 
Just had a call from the RSPCA as they made their inspection this morning. The centre have promised to move the runs in the near future, onto grass so that their feet can touch the floor.

They were advised against keeping the rabbits with the guinea pigs but are not being made to separate them as they have bonded over the years.

Hay and veg were noted today so maybe my strong words about their diet worked.

I'm not over the moon with the result as I feel they should be kept in hutches off the ground but I suppose it's a start.
 
Well done Claire, it's a step in the right direction and it least it will have made them think about it all. Not ideal but you have to do what you can, sadly. At least you made them aware of it, which lots of people wouldn't have been brave enough to do.

Sophie
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poor little things all of them :( even if they have cheap food, are kept with rabbits, have nasty wire floor, no hay, no veg, the woman should at least have the decency to get that pigs eye sorted. I mean prevention of treatment for a sick animal is against the law
 
Well done for getting them inspected Moving runs 'in th near future' does not sound hopeful tho do they have a date to comply by?
 
I asked the inspector that question but as they had volunteered the info before they were asked to move them, he was satisfied that they were aware the runs could not stay there.

In other words....No !
 
I'd keep an eye on them and if you go again and there is no veg and pigs haven't been put on the grass I'd go straight back.

I can understand about the bonding with the rabbits, I think Defra state the same. But if they are in pairs of pigs then I don't see a problem of an animal having a friend of its own kind. :)
 
YOU ARE WONDERFUL :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
I'd go incognito the next time, wear a cap or hat and dress differently and just mosey around and see how things are then hit the RSPCA and say well you lazy sods nothing has been done GET YOUR BUTT OVER THERE :tickedoff: :tickedoff: :tickedoff: :tickedoff: :tickedoff:
I think that's pretty strong......... go for it love you're fantastic to have noticed and to do something about it O0 :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
Good luck little piggies :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
btw that eye looked just like our Sully's eye it could be fatty eye OR it could be cause he's had an injury when he was born or near after that's what happened to our little one... we tried manual therapy of trying to strengthen the lid by exercising it but nooo it didn't work :( I'd still want it check out by a vet tho to make sure there's no infection OMG a rabbit licking a piggie? grrrrrr that's not on... they have diff setups in their systems and they DO not mix >:(
 
i agree with all that has been said, write letters to the council, newspapers, radio stations, television, maybe currents affair programs in the UK O0 perhaps get a friend to go where you saw the piggies and see if anything has been done and take photos if possible. something has to be done for these poor babies and it sickens me and makes me angry that most people just don't care :'( :'( :'( :tickedoff: :tickedoff: :tickedoff: have you in the UK an animal welfare league? really hoping those piggies and bunnies get the help they need O0 sending hugs and helping vibes :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
 
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