Animal Planet Sinks to a New Low

On Monday February 14, 2005 at 8:00 pm, Animal Planet's "Pet Star" showed a pair of "singing" guinea pigs. Any cavy lover will recognize the behavior exhibited on this program as animal abuse. These guinea pigs clearly display pain by their sounds and behaviors as a result of their treatment during this clip.

Two girls are called out to perform their trick with their "musical guinea pigs." Mario Lopez asks them what the guinea pigs' names are, and they tell him they're named Ginger and Alice. He asks to hold Ginger for a moment and tells them that he used to own a guinea pig once, and that Ginger is very cute and chubby. He asks them if they make good pets, and the older girl says that they make great pets, and that they are calm and quiet. He asks if the two guinea pigs are the only pets they have at home, and the girls tell him that they only have some fish other than the guinea pigs. He asks them what grades they are in, and they tell him that they are in 9th and 6th grade. Then he asks them what they're going to do with the guinea pigs, and they say that they're going to make them sing.

He directs them over to two chairs where they take a seat and place the guinea pigs on their laps. The guinea pigs are facing out towards the girls' knees. The girls begin to sing "Old McDonald Had a Farm." They get to the point where there's usually an animal sound quoted, and instead of saying "oink oink" they take turns forcefully pushing the guinea pigs' hair forward. They are pushing from their rump to the middle of their back. They do this eight times during the song and once at the very end, nine times in total. Each time the pigs scream quite loud and pull their ears back, in fear. They look very scared.

The camera goes to different judges' faces, and they are all laughing enthusiastically. Then at the very end they focus in on the two guinea pigs and Alice, the darker pig is closer to the camera. The last scream is the loudest, with both pigs screaming together. Alice seems to be extremely upset, she has pulled her ears back and her eyes are bugging out.

Mario Lopez talks to them when they are done, and tells them that it was great, and that the pigs were on rhythm and that they knew their part. He compared their actions to a DJ with a mixing table, rubbing on records, but in their case they used their guinea pigs instead. Deborah, the first judge is laughing hysterically, while Jeff, the second judge is making squeezing motions with his hands in the air. Deborah is laughing so hard that she cannot talk, and holds up nine fingers as her score. The second judge, Jeff, asks how long the girls have had the animals. The older girl says that they've had those particular guinea pigs for two years, but that they've had guinea pigs most of their lives. He responds by saying that he had a guinea pig once, and he was so excited that he got it on Christmas morning that he chased it around the house until it had a heart attack and died. He's apparently saying this as a joke, and the girls are laughing. He said that it was the funniest act of the day, makes the squeezing motion in the air with his hands again, and he gives them a ten. The third judge Bri also gives the girls a ten, and tells them it was really cool. They end up in the finals, they have the second best score in all but end up losing out to a dog act.

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