ANIMAL RESCUE MITCHAM. THE STORY. - 10/5/2011

The police said they had contacted the RSPCA, but they would not attend!
So we said we would help, and loaded the van with cages and set off to the address.
When we pulled up we were met by the two WPC’s who had contacted us, they explained the situation and showed us the hutches.
As soon as we saw their condition we exchanged glances and our expressions instantly told each other that this was not going to be good. You could smell them from about twenty feet away, and see the flies covering the hutches, when we opened the doors we nearly cried. Inside each of the first four “hutches” were 2 guinea pigs, trudging around on 50-60mm of pure filth that was so wet and boggy their feet sank into it as they walked. Their food bowls had also been enveloped in the depth of faeces and urine and were full up with maggot infested droppings. Flies were swarming in and out of the hutches while maggots and eggs were everywhere. No food was obvious and the water bottles were green with algae. The WPC’s wanted to take some photos as evidence. While one held her phone poised, the other one opened a hutch and promptly gagged from the smell, we thought she was going to throw up. There were also 3 rabbits and 4 hamsters, all living in filth.
We decided that it would be best to take everything as it was and remove the animals from the hutches back at Bobtails where we could assess each guinea pig and rabbit as they were taken out of their prisons, no that’s not fair, prisoners would not be allowed to be treated like this. NOTHING should be treated like this.
As we removed each one it was examined thoroughly to see what chance it had of survival, they had sore feet from standing in the filth, it was caked all over them. They had fur missing from the mites & flea infestations. Some had huge hard lumps of muck stuck to their feet so it was hard to walk. One guinea pig had a lump of faeces that had built up on its rear end so huge it was dragging around a ball the size of a “jiff lemon”. This was full of fly eggs and maggots.
We got back to the centre at about 5.30pm. Delia, our daughter Laura and I spent the next five & a half hours assessing, photographing, washing, drying, treating and settling them into clean fresh cages with nice hay, food and water. They were a bit unsure at first, probably hadn’t seen it for a while, but then started to eat heartily.
The rabbits all snuggled down in their trays of hay, eating whatever they could, we had to give them small amounts at first as we did not know what they had been eating and did not want to cause any digestive problems.
We do not know the reasons why she was evicted, we do not need to know.
And never will.
We do not know why she had let her animals get in this condition, but would like to know.
And never will.
We do not know why the RSPCA were not interested, but would like to know.
And never will.
We would also like to know why this is allowed to happen. If the government and local councils passed a law saying pet shops and garden centres were not allowed to sell animals, only equipment, this would not happen as much.
But they NEVER will.

Please take a look at the pictures in our photo gallery,and videos, beware, they are not for the faint hearted.