Several of the 40 abandoned guinea pigs found at a church
in Beaverton, Oregon on Saturday, November 1, 2014

HappyCavy has been alerted of a developing situation, which involves 40 abandoned guinea pigs in Beaverton, Oregon:

On the night of October 31, Charissa Burns of Beaverton, Oregon, and others found thirteen abandoned guinea pigs on and near the grounds of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 848 SW 206th Ave in Beaverton, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. The guinea pigs were found roaming on the church lawn and huddled together in vegetation in weather unwelcoming to little pigs. On October 31 and November 1, the temperature was below 50° F, with moderate rainfall and notable wind [1]. Because of this, two did not survive the night, and one showed signs of deteriorating health.

UPDATE 11/11/2014: Charissa Burns has provided this clarification of events on October 31:

“Someone from the LDS [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 848 SW 206th Ave, Beaverton, Oregon] did see the guinea pigs at night on Oct 31 she and a friend managed to catch 2, but in the dark they were unable to get anymore. Early on Nov 1, for whatever reason, these two people put the two guinea pigs back. I, then, saw one guinea pig in the church grounds on my walk. The girl from the church came out and started to help. We got some boxes, my husband and kids came to help, and we caught several. Then the LDS girl had to leave, but there were still guinea pigs. A neighbor stopped by and went to get blankets and hedge clippers, because the last 4 guinea pigs were in a dense bush. We yanked and clipped apart the bush to get them out. Then my family brought them to Southwest Animal Hospital to be cared for. That’s the story of the first 13 found, with only 10 surviving. We searched around and did not see anymore. I am glad that justice is being done and that vets in area have been willing to help and foster the guinea pigs!”

The Good Samaritan immediately took the surviving guinea pigs to Southwest Animal Hospital; unfortunately, the guinea pig with deteriorating health passed away during transit.

On Sunday, November 2, Laura Roberts, an individual already familiar with the story, visited the Beaverton church to check for more abandoned guinea pigs. What she found were 27 more guinea pigs hiding in a ditch, three of which were babies younger than a week old. The remaining 24 pigs were under four weeks old. The guinea pigs were all discovered roaming free, many hiding in vegetation and scurrying around on the lawn from fear and the commotion.

One of the abandoned guinea pigs.
Like this one, most of the guinea pigs found
are Teddy breed.

Kate Brownlie, a vet tech at Southwest Animal Hospital who is helping to coordinate the adoption response, says she believes the guinea pigs found on November 2 were abandoned the same day they were found, since the weather on November 2 was milder, and the guinea pigs “were in better shape.” When found, most of the guinea pigs had tags in their ears.

The Southwest Animal Hospital vet tech contacted Washington County Police and has filed a report. Animal abandonment and animal neglect is a 1st degree felony offense.

Several of the 40 abandoned Teddy breed guinea pigs found at
a church in Beaverton, Oregon on Saturday, November 1, 2014

UPDATE 11/9/2014 7:55pm Pacific Time: From vet tech Kate Brownlie, our source and at Southwest Animal Hospital, “The tagged guinea pigs came from various breeders which is how they were tracked. However, the person who dumped them [Cecilia Diaz] was not a breeder. She may have thought she wanted to be one, but she didn’t tag the piggies.”

UPDATE 11/8/2014 6:12pm Pacific Time: New York Daily News has picked up on the story with a few enlightening details about Ms. Diaz’ motive for dumping the cavies [2]:

Diaz was undone by ear tags attached to a few of her former pets. She’d gotten the animals from a breeder in California and soon posted an ad online, seeking to unload them, Unger [Southwest Animal Hospital receptionist Stephanie Unger] said.

“They were advertised as snake bait,” she said.

Diaz eventually decided to dump the cuddly rodents because she didn’t know what else to do with them, a Washington County Sheriff’s spokesman told The Oregonian.

UPDATE 11/6/2014 8:51pm: The guinea pigs are mostly Teddy breed cavies. The guinea pigs have been monitored for health issues since they were found. A majority of the guinea pigs are healthy and are available for adoption. See “These Guinea Pigs Need Your Help!” above for more information.

UPDATE 11/6/2014: KDRTV.com (Klamath Falls, Oregon) has reported that Cecilia Diaz, 19, is now facing charges of animal abandonment and animal neglect in the 1st degree, a felony crime. An excerpt from the article appears below:

Cecilia Diaz

Cecilia Diaz, from Aloha, Oregon, is now facing charges of animal abandonment and animal neglect in the 1st degree which is a felony in connection to the crime. A Good Samaritan found them and called Southwest Animal Clinic in Beaverton.

“The receptionist [edit by HappyCavy.com: at Southwest Animal Hospital] ended up taking the first, you know the first ten of them, basically, after the first three died. So, we thought that was the end of it until the next day when there was a lot more,” said Julie Montagne, who is taking care of guinea pigs.

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