Community Corner

'Look At All the Little Piggies': Chicago's Suburbs Overrun with Abandoned Guinea Pigs

Illinois's largest guinea pig rescue group is hosting adoption events to find loving homes for guinea pigs.

An animal rescue group says it is being inundated with abandoned guinea pigs. More than 100 of the cuddly rodents have been surrendered this summer to shelters and rescue groups throughout Chicago’s suburbs.

“It’s the economy,” said Elaine Meldrum, a volunteer for Critter Corral, Illinois’s largest guinea pig rescue group, based in Steger. “People are just giving them up. They buy them for their kids and the kids stop taking care of them.”

Since the 2009 comedy G-Force, about a covert band of guinea pigs trained in espionage, parents have been running out and buying guinea pigs for their children faster than the critters can reproduce.

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“There was a big craze,” Meldrum said. “People thought they were cute pets, not realizing that you need to bathe them. They aren’t stuffed animals.”

Meldrum said the rescue group is running out of foster homes for the guinea pigs and that more are being dumped every day. At an Oak Lawn adoption event earlier this week, a local animal shelter contacted volunteers and asked if they could take five more.

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“We have babies and adults,” Meldrum said. “We just rescued a guinea pig where the parents were allowing a 6-year-old to take care of it. They were feeding it bird seed.”

Meldrum, who owns two guinea pigs—Buttercup and Reeses—described them as the perfect pets. Guinea pigs are the largest and most sociable of the rodent group and very docile. Once they realize you’re not going to kill them, guinea pigs love to be cuddled and held.

“A lot of people in the city keep them because apartments don’t allow cats and dogs,” Meldrum said. “Guinea pigs recognize voices. They’re always happy to see you because they think you’re going to feed them.”

Guinea pigs live between four and seven years and have litters of up to seven pups. The rescue group recommends that potential owners adopt two or three guinea pigs because they do best in a herd.

“Sometimes if you separate two that have been together a long time they will mourn,” Meldrum said. “We recommend that people take two males or two females.”

Since Critter Corral’s founding in 1999, the group has rescued and adopted out more than 2,500 guinea pigs. Meldrum said adopting a guinea pig from a rescue group is better than buying one at a store.

“Our animals have been checked out by veterinarians and are healthy,” she said. “When I bought my first guinea pig at a store, one week later it was dead.”

Guinea pigs available for adoption through Critter Corral are advertised on PetFinder.org, the nationwide database for adoptable pets.

Critter Corral is hosting a guinea pig adoption event at Pet Supplies Plus, 270 N. Bolingbrook Drive in Bolingbrook, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 6. Visit Critter Corral for more information on adoption or fostering guinea pigs.


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