July 5, 2024, 4:08 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Not everything humans find beautiful or cute in animals is actually good for them. For example, tailless cats and dogs with extremely shortened muzzles suffer from health issues. Therefore, animal welfare activists advise against their breeding. Are guinea pigs also bred in this way?
Over the centuries, many breeds of domestic animals have been created through skillful crossbreeding. While breeders used to select dogs for certain behaviors or small animals for high meat yields, today’s breeding is primarily based on appearance. This is also the case with guinea pigs. There are now at least eleven short-haired and ten long-haired breeds. However, animal welfare does not recommend all of them. Which guinea pigs are the result of unethical breeding practices?
Overview
What does torture breeding mean?
Section 11 of the Animal Welfare Act states: “It is prohibited to breed vertebrates […] that as a result of breeding or modification […] hereditary behavioral disorders associated with suffering occur in the offspring, that any species-appropriate contact with conspecifics leads to pain or avoidable suffering or damage to themselves or a conspecific, or that keeping them is only possible under pain, or avoidable suffering, or leads to harm.”
The law does not specify which domestic animal breeds are subject to “avoidable suffering or harm”. Experts are therefore consulted, for example by the Veterinary Association for Animal Welfare (TVT), in order to classify if certain characteristics are the result of cruel breeding in the legal sense. Breeding of the breeds concerned is prohibited in this case. In addition, animal welfare associations issue their own assessments of torture breeding – also for guinea pigs.
Which guinea pig breeds are considered unethical?
The last expert report on the interpretation of Section 11 of the Animal Welfare Act dates back to 1999 and guinea pigs are practically not mentioned in it. As a result, there are hardly any breeds whose breeding is actually prohibited in Germany. Nevertheless, many animal welfare associations warn against various breeds that have certain characteristics which they consider to meet the criteria for torture breeding.
Naked guinea pigs
Baldwin guinea pigs are completely naked. They have neither a warming coat, nor tactile hair, or eyelashes. This disrupts the Baldwin’s thermoregulation and makes them susceptible to parasites and injury. Due to the lack of vibrissae, also known as whiskers, these animals can hardly orient themselves. According to an expert report, hairlessness and a lack of vibrissae are considered to be a torture breeding trait, although guinea pigs are not specifically mentioned in the report.
Skinny guinea pigs are almost naked. They have residual hair around their snout and their tactile hair is withered. According to the Austrian Animal Welfare Act, the breeding of naked guinea pigs is generally prohibited. In Germany, only Baldwins are subject to the ban on torture breeding under § 11 due to their complete hairlessness. However, animal welfare activists also consider Skinnys to be a product of torture breeding.
Breeds with curly whiskers
Various breeds, such as Teddy, Alpaca, Texel and Rex guinea pigs have curled, stunted or shortened tactile hairs. This disturbs their sensory perception. Although only breeds with a complete lack of whiskers are considered to be torture breeds, animal welfare activists also advise against breeding guinea pigs with curly vibrissae.
White and dalmatian
Dalmatian and white guinea pigs have a spotted or white coat. Even if they themselves are healthy, they can be carriers of the so-called lethal factor. If two animals that carry this gene are mated with each other, the offspring can suffer from severe defects. Offspring with the lethal white syndrome often are stillborns, or they die shortly after birth due to severe deformities.
Satin guinea pigs
They may have a shiny coat, but they often suffer from a serious disease: satin guinea pigs are susceptible to osteodystrophy, an incurable disease affecting bone metabolism. This is because the change in hair structure is caused by a genetic defect. Around a third of the animals that carry the satin gene develop osteodystrophy at a young age, which is accompanied by pain and a hobbling gait.
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