August 23, 2005

A English guinea pig farm has closed recently following six years of harassment, including the theft of a relative's remains, all by animal activists. Photos and reactions.

Yes, this is total newsfilter. BBCnews filter to be specific.

posted by jb 19 years ago
  • Maybe Richard Gere will buy them out.
  • The saga of the search for Mrs. Hammond's remains would have an almost Monty Python quality, if it weren't so horrific. Astounding story - thanks, jb. What's up with the first link?
  • I suppose those activists wouldn't like Peruvians much. Do you suppose guinea pigs taste like pork?
  • It was one of the most significant advances in the development of agriculture of Mesoamerica (the second major seat of farming in the world, after the Fertile Crescent) when, 4,000 years ago, the Inca first tamed the guinea pig. It was also quite possibly the lamest development in the march of civilisation, ever.
  • Do you suppose guinea pigs taste like pork? Tastes like chic never mind
  • Wonderful thing it is, a sense of moral superiority. It's OK for me harass you, threaten you, and to dig up and defile your relatives' remains, but don't you test that HIV drug on the piggies!
  • Maybe their point was that people will get more upset about the disposition of a dead human than about what's done with a live animal that's still capable of feeling such things as pain, fear, confusion, etc.
  • Do you suppose guinea pigs taste like pork? Actually, they taste more like turkey. And I'd recommend eating it with a Peruvian family who makes it in their kitchen house on an open fire (after catching it from the many that run around their kitchen floor and then cooking it and eating it in front of its brethren), rather than the expensive restaurants in the touristy areas of Peru. ...or so I've heard...
  • You should probably eat it while it's little piggy brethren are tied to chairs. For extra points, shout "Shut up or your next little piggies!" while you chomp down on that sweet, sweet piggy flesh. Man, I need to get out more ...
  • The letter states that a relative or friend of the Hall family will be killed if the farm continues breeding guinea pigs Who the heck are these terrorist psychos, and what's their obsession with the guinea pigs? I don't see any note of them terrorizing any other farms raising other animals. And is there even a shred of evidence to support their claims of animal abuse at the farm? Not that it in any way condones this sort of behaviour.
  • At last the opportunity to rant about stupid animal activists who know sod-all about ecology. They release farmed mink over here, into a habitat that the critters love, and which has no natural defences against the onslaught of little hungry carnivores. The odd one is taken by a bird of prey, but the damage done to the lemming population is catastrophic.
  • But they're guinea pigs for god's sake. How can you stop guniea pigs being guinea pigs? This is like taking away their raison d’être.
  • Part of the orientation at this lab I've worked in was, "Under no circumstances, do NOT let unauthorized persons (such as animal activists) into the rodent room." Which I thought was really funny at the time, since my experience stateside with animal rights wackiness is blissfully limited. Short of that crazy dude in a chicken suit protesting outside KFC.
  • ...And from the pictures, the guinea pigs have just as much living space, if not more, than the average petstore 'pig. on preview: what Stan the Bat said.
  • Okay, first of all, a guinea pig farm? For eating them? Ew. Ugh. I can hear them crying still. The aniamal rights actividts are right in what they do, but they take it WAY TOO FAR. I think some animal testing Is okay. -.-
  • Vertex - do you only eat ugly, silent animals then? Spiders and cockroaches? (actually, I like spiders.) Mostly, it was the inhumanity of this story that shocked me, and the way that the activists seemed to feel like their fellow humans were worthy of less respect than the animals.
  • Meanwhile, in the USA.