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Peter Gurney, who died on July 2nd 2006 aged 68, was a campaigner for
the rights and welfare of guinea pigs, and regularly brought the animals
into the wards of Great Ormond Street Hospital, where the children called
him "The Guinea Pig Man". Born at Luton on March 9 1938, Peter Gurney was educated at
Beech Hill Secondary Modern and did his National Service with the Navy. He
then became a bus and lorry driver. His career as a guinea pig expert began
when he was 48; he was twice divorced and facing redundancy when he bought a
guinea pig from his local pet shop. Soon he was sharing his small flat with many guinea pigs and
he began campaigning for cavy welfare. When people called him an eccentric,
he would merely laugh, claiming: "Very early on in life I found the
company of animals to be far more enjoyable than that of my own kind." Gurney wrote several books about
guinea pig care; he ran a comprehensive website, gave talks and spent hours
dispensing free advice over the telephone day and night. When he visited Vedra
Standley-Spatcher, founder of the Cambridge Cavy Trust, a guinea pig
hospital, he volunteered to act as an "ambulance driver" and to
help in any other way he could. In 1990 it occurred to him that
the children at Great Ormond Street Hospital might enjoy being visited by
guinea pigs, and the hospital welcomed the idea. Gurney would arrive by
Underground pulling a long, narrow plywood box on wheels with wire mesh down
one side; inside would be five guinea pigs. He would place an animal on a
child's lap and talk about what interested him most - guinea pigs. When a serious accident made
driving impossible Gurney was forced to retire from his job. He was
delighted, as this meant that he could devote himself full time to his
consuming interest. He began to take a close interest in guinea pig medicine,
which put him on a collision course with vets. Veterinary education
traditionally included relatively little time spent on the illnesses of small
pets. Gurney sought to remedy this, and not always tactfully. He frequently complained about
the inadequacies of veterinary knowledge and the poor self-regulation of the
profession. In 1992 he was diagnosed with
kidney cancer, and, during his recovery, wrote his first book, The Proper
Care of Guinea Pigs, taking all the photographs himself. He also made contact
with, and was encouraged by, Michael Bond, author of the "Olga De
Polga" children's books. Bond's then guinea pig, Olga, had been
off-colour but recovered as a result of Gurney's ministrations. Gurney wrote a number of other
books, including The Sex Life of the Guinea Pig, which he promoted on a tour
of the United States. When Great Ormond St Hospital
told him that guinea pigs were no longer welcome for health and safety
reasons, Gurney expressed a rare bitterness: "That bunch of control
freaks in government took this away from me," he complained. Earlier this year he was told
that he was losing his battle with cancer and made careful arrangements to
find new homes for his guinea pigs, 40 of whom survive him. |