Leybourne's RSPCA Animal Centre experiences a surge in applications to foster nearly one hundred guinea pigs rescued from up North.
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00:00 Guinea pigs can be a bit of a handful, especially when you have dozens of them like Labourn RSPCA.
00:06 They went on an eight hour round mission to rescue around 30 pregnant mothers as well
00:11 as tens of male guinea pigs.
00:13 And they're temporarily being looked after at the local centre.
00:17 Just over a week ago we did our first run up north up the M1 to go and collect 30 guinea
00:21 pigs and we went back again this Monday to go and collect another 17.
00:26 Some of the first ones we had were females and already pregnant so our numbers are escalating.
00:29 Day by day we're having more and more babies born on site.
00:34 So yeah we have desperately been seeking to build new accommodation on site, turning every
00:38 single little room and crack we've got into somewhere where we can house these guinea
00:42 pigs in social groups and yeah starting to now think about how we can move them on to
00:46 their next stage of rehabilitation.
00:49 After appealing on their social media page for support, the charity were inundated with
00:53 around 60 applications wanting to give these fluffy friends a temporary home.
00:58 So much so that they've had to halt further applications for the time being.
01:02 So we've had an absolutely amazing response to our call to help for all the people in
01:06 Kent asking for people to come forward as fosterers to offer temporary respite care
01:11 for these guinea pigs.
01:12 A lot of them are pregnant so because of that we can't look at rehoming them just yet, we
01:16 need to get them through that gestation period.
01:18 Once we know they're not pregnant then we'll be looking for permanent homes so right now
01:22 it is just temporary but yeah we've had over 60 applications come through for people that
01:26 want to give them that temporary home.
01:28 While they have put the cause for fostering on hold, they have hundreds of other animals
01:32 in need of a loving home and are also appealing for donations.
01:36 Now for anyone that's hoping to foster one of these guinea pigs and give them a temporary
01:40 home, the applications are looking to reopen in the next couple of weeks once they've processed
01:44 the current influx of applications but for anyone who wants to take one home permanently
01:49 and adopt them, give them a new home, you're looking towards the end of the year until
01:54 they're ready to be rehomed.
01:56 Anyone interested is urged to thoroughly do their research first to make sure they're
02:00 the right fit for one of these four-legged friends.
02:03 Sophia Akin for KMTV in Leybourne.