Determined rescue team captures guinea pigs ditched in downtown Dartmouth

A group of determined animal lovers coaxed twoguinea pigs to safety over the weekend usinga fishing net, handfuls of lettuce and a recordingof the animal's noises.

They say the pets were left to fend for themselves in downtown Dartmouth, N.S.,and discovered about a week ago by someonewho was walking down the street. On Saturday, more than half a dozen peopleworked together to capturethe duo near OchterloneyStreet.

During the first day of the search effort, the guinea pigs were hiding in some brambles,and people couldn't get to them.

"We weren't giving up, no matter how hard we got bitten by those thorns,"Hunter Lively told CBC Radio's Mainstreet on Monday.

"We were able to catch the [first] piggie after probably 30 minutes or more of waiting, looking at the guinea pig in the bush, just waiting for it to move."

The rescue team hadlive traps on hand, stocked withfruits, veggies and hay to try and lure them out. Lively said the local fire department even got involved at one point.

"We couldn't have done it with just one or two people. It honestly took all of Dartmouth and beyond that," Lively said.

Not the firstpiggie found inDartmouth

It isn't the first time guinea pigs have been ditched by their owners in Dartmouth, according toHollie Davis.

Last year she rescued two other guinea pigs near the same location and adopted one of them and her baby. Their names are Moose and Bean.

She thinks the pets are being left in that particular spot of Dartmouthbecause there's a veterinarian's office nearby.

"I think that possibly it's the same people who have done it before, and maybe they just don't know how to properly handle guinea pigs and they have a male and a female and keep having problems," Davis said.

With little food and lots of predators, thedomesticated creatures won't survive long on their own outdoors, she said.

"There's just better ways of surrendering your animal without dumping them outdoors," Davissaid.

Guinea pig rescuein Bridgewater

Many rescuedguinea pigs end up at The Higglety Pigglety House in Bridgewater.

Former veterinarian Hande Barutcuoglu started therescue in 2017 after seeing ads for free guinea pigs on Kijiji.

"I realized that a lot of these guinea pigs, they had no other options," she said.

"They went from one well-meaning but ignorant home to another well-meaning but ignorant home."

Barutcuoglu said many of the animals she's rescued over the years haveovergrown nails and are underfed. In many cases she believesthey're abandoned by their owners who don't realizethe animals can live seven to eight years.

Barutcuoglu, whohasnow rescued more than500 guinea pigs, said theymake great pets if peopleknow how to care for them.

"They're social ... they like people. They talk. They'll sit on your lap and watch TV with you," she said.

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