Abandoned Guinea Pigs Featured on Stooping NYC Instagram Have Been Rescued

There are so many ways to live more sustainably, and stooping is a great way that people, especially city dwellers, can find secondhand furniture. The stooping community has also been known to step in for living creatures, as in the story of abandoned guinea pigs on Stooping NYC. The Instagram page Stooping NYC has found homes for countless items, as well as a few animals.

Here's the story of what happened to a few tiny rodents who were abandoned in New York City, and thankfully noticed by the Stooping NYC account.

In June 2023, the Stooping NYC team posted an image to Instagram that was heartbreaking to many of the page's followers. The picture showed a clear backpack with guinea pigs inside of it. On two pieces of masking tape on the bag you can see the words "Free Guinea Pigs."

The Stooping NYC team shared this message along with the picture: "Our least favorite type of stoop but we also want to find homes. Help! 1643 Broadway in BK."

Followers of Stooping NYC were quick to comment, expressing their hopes that the guinea pigs would soon be rescued. One comment read, "What kind of monster does this."

Many pointed out specifically the danger to the animals being left inside a bag with no air circulation on a hot summer day.

Voters For Animal Rights, a NYC-based organization, commented: "Thank god the new law banning the sale of guinea pigs in NYC goes into effect tomorrow, June 11th! This can’t keep happening."

Fortunately for the little critters, a few heroes quickly stepped up to rescue them.

Soon after the original post, Stooping NYC shared a photo of two young women smiling with the backpack, after having picked it up from the neighborhood stoop where the guinea pigs had been left. They wasted no time in getting the guinea pigs settled into their new home (and posting an update for the Instagram community to see).

"Three little guinea pigs left on a bench in a pet backpack in the middle of a summer day. Wouldn’t have thought I’d come across that sort of stoop. But when @stoopingnyc also shared a post on their page, I knew something needed to be done," Kiraaaa, one of the women to rescue the animals, wrote in an Instagram post.

"They went from being abandoned to finding their new forever home, all with the help of amazing people who wanted them safe," she continued. "As an owner of a rescue kitty who was left in a similar manner, my heart felt full knowing that they’d be safe and taken care of by the wonderful family that came to their rescue. Thank you everyone who reached out with suggestions and recommendations, it shows that you all care so much."

She added a screenshot from a messaging conversation with the other woman in the image, who seems to have taken the guinea pigs home. As she noted in her message, one of the guinea pigs turned out to be pregnant, and was in the care of an animal clinic.

Abandoning any animal is never OK, and we're relieved that this story had a happy ending.

The Instagram account Stooping NYC posts frequent photos and locations of items that have been left on stoops outside of New York City apartment buildings. As this couple told Green Matters, they were amazed at the quantity and quality of free items left outdoors for the taking.

They started Stooping NYC not expecting much of an audience, but it has grown to reach 445,000 followers on Instagram as of 2023. They now have people all over the five boroughs sharing stooping finds for them to post on the Instagram page.

As The New York Times reports, stooping can be a great way to furnish an apartment without spending a dime. "If you know where to look, and how to get the stuff home, it’s possible to furnish an entire apartment with someone else’s junk." Stooping NYC isn't the only social media page that's helping people find just the right items for their home, and they also occasionally offer safety to abandoned animals!

If you are looking for non-animal stooping finds, here's how to find the best items. You'll want to check out neighborhoods on the first and last day of each month, since that's when people typically move in or out. And keep track of garbage pickup times, so you can check for great tossed items just before they're hauled away.