Guinea Pig Rentals Are Booming.

A Swiss woman has hit on an usually successful business idea, rental guinea pigs.

In Switzerland, it is illegal to own guinea pig without also owning a guinea pig companion. Guinea pigs are extremely sociable and become very distressed without someone of their same species to spend time with. When a person is caring for two guinea pigs and one dies, they run the risk of being in violation of the law. This is where Priska Krug comes along.

Krug owns a network of guinea pigs that she rents out to people who want a younger pig for companionship to an older one nearing the end of their life. When the older one dies, the rental pig is usually returned. Sometimes people get so attached that they will keep the rented pig.

Krug breeds the pigs herself and collects 40 to 60 Euro per rental. She has all the male guinea pigs in the service castrated before they are rented out so they don’t impregnate any females. The pigs suffer greatly and Krug reaps all the profit. What a nightmarish life.

If the Swiss government can acknowledge that keeping a solitary guinea pig is cruel then surely they can acknowledge that castrating and renting out dozens of them is even worse.