‘When we got them, they were so cold and so frozen’: Man charged with animal cruelty after allegedly abandoning guinea pigs
Michael Leduc, of Litchfield, N.H., is scheduled for arraignment in December.
A man from Litchfield, N.H., is facing animal cruelty charges stemming from two guinea pigs that died after they were allegedly abandoned in a nearby conservation area earlier this month, police said.
Michael Leduc faces two counts of animal cruelty and is scheduled for arraignment on Dec. 11.
Litchfield police said the department “received numerous reports” of the small animals left in Moore’s Falls Conservation Area on Oct. 6. The animals were taken to Guinea Pig Sanctuary in Hampton, N.H., where they died, police said.
“When we got them, they were so cold and so frozen,” said Kimie Smotherton, the director of the sanctuary, who named them Hope and Faith. “We really didn’t expect them to make through the night. They had all kinds of nasty stuff on them; Hope had a tick on her.”
In a Facebook post, Smotherton wrote it’s believed the two survived overnight in the conservation land.
Hope died soon after arriving at the sanctuary, she said. Faith, on the other hand, began treatment for sinus and eye infections, plus water in her lungs, but died within a week of being found.
Lt. Heath Savage, of Litchfield police, told the New Hampshire Union Leader that the incident was a first for him.
“Litchfield is a rural town, but this is an unusual case,” he told the paper.
