[Gpdd] [MISCELLANEOUS] Rant on cages

[Janna Willard]

I've been looking on Kijiji for guinea pigs. In the process, I often end up
looking at ads looking to sell guinea pigs with their cages, and looking to
sell guinea pig cages. Let me tell you, none of these "guinea pig cages" are
proper guinea pig cages! There is one ad that really bothers me, where the
person is looking to sell two males (father and son) because the child has
lost interest (that's a whole different rant) and is offering the cage,
which "is large enough to give both pigs adequate room." The photos show a
cage that is about the size of the ones I use for sickness quarantine (so
they can't move around a lot if they need to be kept still). The bottom of
those cages is about the same size as my cat's litter box. It's not big
enough for ONE guinea pig, let alone TWO! And the photos of the boys in
there proves it! There is an igloo under the shelf that provides a second
level, and the ramp to the shelf runs down the side of the cage, which means
that they have less than half the floor space for running around. And of
course the cage bars are too far apart for it to be adequate for any other
animal, since anything that is actually small enough to be suited to a cage
that small is also going to be able to get out through the bars! And this
was bought brand-new at Pet Smart!

I am trying to figure out how to educate the general public about this sort
of thing, but it seems to me that the only way I could really do that would
be to go to the pet store and spend lots of time talking to people who are
looking at guinea pig stuff and looking at guinea pigs and trying to guide
them toward the right things (or at least better things). But I suspect I
might get in trouble for doing something like that on a regular basis. Does
anyone have any better ideas? This is really distressing for me to think
about and see.

Along those lines, I have to share something wonderful. I was looking on
Petfinder (that's where the Saskatoon SPCA posts its animals) and reading
notes about different guinea pigs available for adoption in different
places, and I was surprised and pleased with the posts from the Small Animal
Rescue Society of BC: every single guinea pig posting refers people to
guineapigcages.com to find out about proper care and cage size. I am going
to try to remember to send them an e-mail to tell them how impressed I was
to see that reference. I wish I was closer so I could adopt one of the
piggies there!

-Janna

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be
normal." Albert Camus
"I want to remake the world; anything less is not worth the trouble." Karen
Cushman