Badly treated Guinea pigs.

[starlingqueen]

Long story so bare with me. My daughter works at a nursery with children. They have 2 pet piggies but the woman who owns them also works there but doesn't take proper care of them. They live outside in a dirty ramshackle hutch that lets water in. She fills their water bottles from a dirty puddle or bucket, doesn't clean them out, just adds more sawdust on top of dirty stuff. My daughter has started to take care of them and found that they often don't have food, hay or water. The water bottle had a dead slug in it from the puddle. She bought a tarpaulin to cover them up at night and buys food and hay and cleans them out. They are very small and thin compared to my 2 piggies, they are often wet and shivering and look sad, and one lost it's voice recently.

My daughter took them home over Christmas as the owner is 8 months pregnant so said she couldn't take them and was just going to leave them at the nursery. Over Christmas my daughter bathed them, fed them good veg and kept them inside. They began to get fatter and started to respond to her. While she was clipping knots off one of them she found a bald area with a hole in the skin. She then found it had an abscess near it's bottom, which she removed puss from. The problem now is, she doesn't want to take them back to the hell they were living in but the owner is insisting she does. Is there any law that says she can keep them due to the way they have been treated?

It's a tricky situation as my daughter doesn't want to cause trouble in her place of work but she can't sit back and leave the animals to suffer.

[OP]

That is one tricky situation. I don't know anything about law that covers that, however it is against the law to mistreat any animal. What ever your daughter does is liable to cause trouble. She could report the situation to the RSPCA and they may get involved, but once again it may lead to trouble. What a situation to be in. Sorry but I cannot offer an answer.

[starlingqueen]

It's a hard situation. I am worried this woman may involve the police if she doesn't take them back but the welfare of the animals is at stake and so is my daughters job.

[jellybean]

People like that anger me so much. How could anyone expect animals to live in those sort of conditions. Your daughter has volunteered to give these little animals a better life, which wouldn't be very hard considering how they are living at present, and this woman would rather they lived in this squalor. She is despicable.
I hope something can be done to help these poor animals, but unfortunately your daughter finds herself in a very difficult situation.

[tickle]

That is a sad and akward situation ...some times a more gentle manner can achieve not perfectly but a reasonable result ..to keep on side but have an input to the welfare of these little guys MAYBE she could suggest to the owner that she really loved having them at hers for a bit and she would love it if they could come and visit maybe every second weekend or something .....? Worth a try !

[starlingqueen]

I have told her that if the manager of the nursery insists she takes them back that she should have some conditions agreed before hand. Like they buy a new hutch, position it in a better place, it's currently round the side of a building that is very draughty and that the manager makes sure they are checked regularly for food water and to make sure they are cleaned out regularly.