Andre Hartslief
The Guinea Pig is a cute Little Pet but keeping them as pets is not what people from Peru do with them. To them, Guiney pigs are slaughtered for their meat. In fact, these tasty animals are fast becoming so popular in South America, that restaurants on both the East Coast as well as the West coast, cannot keep up with the demand. In Spanish, they are called cuyes and are usually cooked whole, sometimes grilled and often deep fried. Most diners eat the whole animal, from head to toe.
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deep_Fried_Guinea_Pig,_Cuy.JPG" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>
To us, Guinea pigs have always been popular cute pets, while in South America, these animals have long been a valuable food source, particularly in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, where they have been eaten for generations. Now they are being munched on by bored North American middle-class foodies with a taste for extreme – exotic delicacies. In the US, If these animals are not being munched on, they are being Photographed or blogged to death.
<a href="https://pixabay.com/en/guinea-pig-pet-cute-animal-1100448/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>
I am purely vegetarian
Catchy title for sure. A lot of animals are eaten that we keep as pets. I draw the line at eating pets. I was once asked if I wanted to try mountain lion, declined on that one too.
Nice.
Reading the title of this post disgusted me. I can’t believe they do this in Peru! That’s a reason why I don’t eat meat anymore. I switched over to being a pescatarian.
Great post, André! Years ago, when we were living in Holland, my girlfriend (now wife) and I kept two of these super-cute pets. When it came time to leave the country none of our friends wanted to have them so we were left with a conundrum. You can guess what I wanted to do with them, but herself forbade it absolutely! So we let them out to run wild among the sand dunes at the seaside. Since they had lived in captivity all their lives, and had probably never even seen the outdoors, I doubt that they survived more than a few days—and possibly a lot less. Well, I hope they enjoyed their short-lived freedom while it lasted 🙂