Accused Guinea Pig Hoarder Defends Himself in Letter to the Editor

Welcome to our letters to the editor/opinion section. To submit yours for consideration, please send to [email protected]. Please consider including an image to be used–either a photograph of you or something applicable to the letter. However, an image is not necessary for publication.

Remember opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of Redheaded Blackbelt nor have we checked the letters for accuracy.

This letter is in response to one posted January 6 on our website by a reader concerned about what she characterized as a guinea pig hoarding situation. The man accused in her letter responds below.

Being one for testing boundaries, I must apologize to others for having spoiled it.  We’ve had a good thing going in being simply left alone.  Now, everyone must let others decide what they are to do.  In itself a reasonable proposition to the degree that it concerns others, but it depends on who does the reasoning.

Knowing Mary shifted tactics from loudly in public to quietly with officials, does not make us feel better represented.  Given her propensities, her working quietly with none the wiser cannot bode well.  Sure enough, she has obliged the city to change laws pointed at us in every way but admittedly.  Times Standard didn’t contact us until after the fact, but two sides to a story and another for facts proves more than will fit to print.  Since it is largely to satisfaction, Mary has returned to her war of perception.  It is indeed, terribly wrong to hear tell.

No one has any idea of how much constant and consistent work it has been to maintain these animals over the years, or the dedication in every aspect of our lives required to do so. Realizing it as to be taken from our hands, here is what first came to mind.

A great weight has been lifted knowing lawmakers will legislate answers to a problem in which we find no solution to appease others, given constraints of morality we hold dear.  I would not be surprised if none noted our leader of the free world making similar distinction expressing awareness of his decision being amoral separating children from families, but that he’d made a rule to the effect and was therefore right.  Some tried pointing it out with fundamental misgivings, but it was lost to the general alarm and mayhem of social media moving on to the next dog whistle of concern.  History is not the only thing that rhymes.  Society resonates in similarities transcending scale and reflects it’s values in larger pictures right down to us.  Now, it has attracted attention sufficiently that it is no longer a matter of discretion.  We have been made indiscreet.  This freedom is to be removed.  Something must be done, if only to be seen as doing something.  Others have every means to issue decisions which we only abide.

I have taken the advice to sit quiet and hope for the best.  It has taken a tone that we should just sit quiet, so I wonder if there is more value in something said.  Not for us.  We have an advocate to interpret for others on our behalf.  She seems to have dedicated much of her life to it.  Commonly, we do not much care what happens to others.  But there may be some interest in how it might happen to you.

Guinea pigs have obliged me to venture out into the community, looking for grass.  It generates interest in my human powered mower, a rare thing in this gas operated age.  I get honked at by the roadside more often of late, by those who presumably know me and what I am about by virtue of being seen doing it.  A police officer pulled up with his partner in their unmarked muscle car, asking my business.  Stating it, he volunteered the observation that I should take all I wish.  I realized why, in how it does much to reduce obscurity in their view to such as bike paths, making areas less inviting to be camped and dumped on.  It is good maintenance for urban grasslands that can be seen to improve density, appearances and extend interim before the city is obliged to raze it again.  It generates an interest personally, for community involvement by virtue of having a premise to be out in it.

There is also unequivocal benefit to private property, in our view.  Though that of others may conclude it as waste, we have marveled of late at how much in many aspects of our culture in truth and regard, need not be.  it is a vital and valuable component to the intention of what our living space entails with unique qualities that demonstrate none of the drawbacks typically assumed of similar materials from other types of animals, promising an ability to provide for our modest needs in convenience and cost effectiveness with ideal results.

Some conditions are unique to this area, and some of them to us.  Our home was built before the first world war.  It is still situated and disposed toward a better use in its’ original way that begs gardening.  While most else on the block has been turned to concrete and condominium, our patch retains original qualities in a clearly inviting disposition to be utilized.  Indeed, there is little else of practical use for it in purposes of others, being topographically incompatible with more condo and an area deserving natural protection.

We have shaped our lives around these advantages, sharing them with animals as is presently our right.  But thanks to efforts of some that go by their own beliefs, they are being changed.  Doing so for the better should be considered a delicate matter, to avoid callous precedent.  With consideration, it is not impossible, or even inconvenient.  Some aforethought easily lends itself to the duty of care.

What we would beg, is to be excused from the liars contest of misrepresentation for unclear motive.  We have grown weary waging this war of hype and drama for the sake of the poseury in righteousness.  It serves only to detract from our efforts that might otherwise easily be seen as precursor to a less wasteful and destructive manner of human habitation that remains within constraints of urban requirements and enables means to a lifestyle both healthier and more rewarding.

But okay.  The city has decided to take responsibility, for our being represented as having not.  Where does this lead in choice and action?  Do they really want or need it?  To what measure and degree?  Does it serve more than appearances?  What are they, and what is the actual effect on those involved?

It is a simple matter to resolution, I will not attempt to frighten others with horrifying effect.  Guinea pigs have no chance without protection in this world.  If they are not kept safe, errant pets and indigenous wildlife find pigs a welcome opportunity and simply make them disappear.  Some might think our witness to pain and fear in the process a proper lesson, but we cannot imagine the unimaginable when all we have done is everything to prevent it.

None are equipped or inclined to take large numbers of creatures incompatible with those they are already obliged to.  It displaces their capacity to help those truly abandoned and in need of real assistance, while providing no guarantee they find good homes.  Fortunately, animal control makes it a point to witness matters and has the wisdom to allow maintenance of tolerable situations that do not have better means to resolution in some views.  The main factor that prevents it improving for us, is the matter of perception.   Protecting them makes a drawback of their one natural advantage, which the city would resolve with legislation.  We are obliged.  Additional rules without comparable resources or alternatives may achieve only greater problems, but they will likely pale in comparison to those charged with their administration.  Some may console themselves in light of predictable events with the virtue of being right.  We continue our efforts with the thought of it as their view.

I am reminded of a chapter in the series “Dogs” on Netflix.  It relates the story of a socialist country that voted to ban unsightly animals and levy fines against owners.  None having impossible amounts of money, this had the effect of their being promptly disowned.  The resultant flood of stray animals overwhelmed the community and those attempting to rescue them were simply prosecuted in turn.  We hope those acquiring methods have wisdom to provide means accomplishing them that go further than shifting liability, but it seems typical to be satisfied assigning blame and fines.  It poses the choice between love or money.  I should wonder at peoples’ dedication to either.  But faced with losing our home to attributed cost demands sacrifice.

The effect of doing nothing has had arguable results.  We take responsibility that is not taken from us, views and motives lend description to the effects ranging from profound to negligible.  I would invite inquiry to opinion of nearby neighbors.  Solicitation receives positive assurances, if not oblivious indifference.

Without the virtue of patience, our venture can only be seen as impossibly underpowered.  I have set myself up with a great deal of work that some may doubt the ability to be accomplished.  Given the efforts of others, I have my own.  But I believe in it.  I believe in myself, in our family and in guinea pigs.  We have done the right thing.  But certainty is no match for rules.

Given the views of individuals that have invested themselves emotionally into our situation, they are unlikely to find satisfaction until we are actively punished and the persistence of laws serve purpose to threaten as means they may wield.  I am not sure most wish any armed with such against others.  It makes arbitration a much larger task.  I would encourage wiser heads to find their own view.  It should involve those of others in their feeling that something has been done, ours that there is something to be done, and those of authority that they are seen as doing what is right for a community that maintains tolerance and fairness for differences in view.

There is more to it than harm, there is the potential for it.  But if the number delegated is to be less than arbitrary and seeks prevention, nature dictates that it must be less than two.  Otherwise, some choice involving trust in the local citizenry need be given merit.  My endorsement would go toward examining effects, before the number.  There is no end to micro management in such a widely varied category as animals and the result is far more significant than its’ numerical representation, if it is accepted with better criteria than hearsay at face value absent of witness.

Accommodating creatures has met with success for us.  Some people, not so much.  We receive thanks for our efforts through the simple happiness and harmony at hand and though none are obliged, some indication would be welcome in a view that takes something of ours into account.  We sit in fear that an impossible situation will be made, and the fatalism of knowing there is nothing within our means to be done that we are not already.  Animals do not have the rights we do, so we seek to use ours defending them from even the well meaning.  Without that we can only join them, becoming victims of consequence beyond our power to prevent.

We could invite some perspective relative to other things about the community, but hesitate to point about for it being viewed as an attempt to obfuscate matters.  Suffice to say, compared to the disruptive and unfortunate behavior that includes dumping and bodies found in our area of late, guinea pigs are one of the more pleasant things to occur over our thirty five years of residence at this locale.  Those that aren’t told don’t know of it, and carry on as they will.

It is a simple task to acquire a bottle of CO2 with a tube and bucket to render them in suitable state to be vacuum sealed in plastic and frozen for distribution to pet owners with reptiles and carrion beetles.  Were any to account for their preference, guinea pigs would easily prefer we not.  A more charitable view might conclude there is little to be done that improves present or potential scenarios significantly for any,  but the nominal effort to ensure trust as well placed in seeing the right thing done and await the logical conclusion of natural lives. We hope for consideration of the difference made for any in either way.

When what is done is allowed more weight than what is said, kindness can make all the difference to those whom it truly matters.  It just doesn’t get nearly the attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euGIen6aVJU&t=390s

Richard Furman

Earlier Chapter: Hundreds of Guinea Pigs Being Hoarded Alleges Letter Writer