Guinea pigs slaughtered
Police are investigating the deaths of two guinea pigs that were brutally killed in west Auckland as their owners slept on Wednesday night.
The pets’ owner Sabrina, who did not want her last name published, said she found the pair ‘‘almost sliced in half’’ at the bottom of a tree on March 23.
Their cage had been dragged across the back yard, upturned, and kicked in, she said.
Adam and Pedro were her eightyear-old son’s guinea pigs. He was given them for his birthday last year.
‘‘He loved them so much - he’d put collars on them for them for garden walks, and would play with them for hours,’’ Sabrina said.
‘‘I’m just so glad I was the one who went out first, to feed them, that morning.’’
To spare her son the trauma of seeing his beloved pets brutalised, she said she put the animals in her pockets as he ran out to investigate the upturned cage.
‘‘I told him they must have run away, then he wanted to stay home from school and search,’’ she said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Roger Small confirmed enquiries into the incident were underway and police had visited the family’s home.
He urged anyone with information to phone Waitakere Police on 09 839 0600.