[Gpdd] Health: rescue

[Mieke Staaks]

Hi all,

Penny writes about different experiences she or the people at shelter had
with people abandoning animals.
I have some stories to add, and am sorry that apparantly these 'practices'
happen all over the world.

I used to work at a rodent shelter nearby.
We had people coming in with complete cages with rats, a hamster or guinea
pigs that
had just been dumped next to the trash (the one that gets picked up by the
big garbage truck)!

We had someone come in who found a guinea pig in her garden, then after a
while she came to pick him up again, cause she insisted he'd get a good
home, and her neighbours son was willing to take him!

We had someone who did not want to take him to the shelter, because at the
shelter you are to pay a small fee when handing them over, that covers a bit
for the costs we need to make taking care of them.
He was mad about having to pay if I remembered correctly, and took them back
home.
That at one time he phoned us saying we would kill them.
Luckily the volunteer knew where animals were, so she called the cops and
they took them away from him, before harm was done!

We had rabbits pushed through the cat flap (eventhough the rabbit was too
big!),
Rabbits in very small containers, or wrapped in a big canvas bag.
Guinea pigs in a carton box, in front of the door in the rain!

And possibly one of the saddest stories was about an unwanted rabbit being
dumped a a big trashcan,
the ones you put at the street and the garbage truck will empty them upside
down...
Then they threw deep frying fat in the trashcan!!!
Luckily it had cooled down, so there were no burns, but the rabbit was
covered in grease, which was hard to get rid of, and it was traumatized!

Luckily there are also happy stories to tell like people who where
immigrating and were bringing in their rabbit, and they were devastated
having to give him up.
Or a little girl who loved her guinea pigs, but was allergic to them. She
got skinny piggies hoping to not be bothered by her allergies...
Unfortunately she was bothered by it, and had to give them up.
She made drawings of the piggies, that were put on the cages...
And people who came to buy a chinchilla, we ask about 20-25 euro for them,
but he paid a 100, maybe even a 150, because that's what he would pay for
it, when getting it at a breeder.

Working at the shelter has opened my eyes about how cruel people can be to
their animals!
I would never have thought people were capable of doing these kind of things
if I had not seen it there.

Grtz,
Mieke
-- 
pandameisje at gmail.com
pandameisje at hotmail.com

Blog: http://pandameisje.hyves.nl
Cavia website: www.guinygirlz.nl