Gerald Lynch
When Kealba resident Mariana Pacheco was driving down Biggs Street, St Albans and looked out her window to see a cardboard box labelled ‘free guinea pigs’ she thought someone was playing a prank.
But when she looked inside the box that was left a quarter open to let air in, Ms Pacheco was met by two small, scared guinea pigs.
“I actually thought it was a prank when I saw the box on the side of the road but I had to check it out just in case,” she said.
“The poor things were terrified, I couldn’t just leave them there.”
She posted online in community groups trying to find their owner, conceding that although abandoning them was a poor thing to do, she understands owning a pet can be challenging.
“Sadly, I think there isn’t enough education on where you can surrender pets if you can no longer provide a home for them and people get desperate and just dump them for fear of being treated negatively at the time of surrender,” she said.
“Also, I think people see a little pet and think they don’t take much work. Guinea pigs can require a lot of work to look after and people get tired of it. That’s not an excuse to dump them but it’s possibly a better option than having them be mistreated or neglected and eventually die.”
Ms Pacheco decided to adopt the orphans, naming them Cookies and Cream, and has built a pen for them in her front yard.
She said they will be available for the whole community to enjoy, giving them a good life and allowing neighbours without pets to join in looking after them.
“They’re both doing well after a stressful start for them,” she said.
“Cookies is very confident and Cream is quite shy. But they love their carrots and greens, mainly the dandelion weeds.”
For no-judgement surrender advice, contact the RSPCA team on 03 9224 222.
