$5,000 Reward Offered to Help Find Who Dumped Guinea Pigs on Old Highway N.

For Immediate Release:
August 18, 2026

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction on cruelty-to-animals charges of the person(s) responsible for abandoning four guinea pigs—three of whom died—in two plastic exercise balls on Old Highway N. near Hawk Ridge Trail.

The guinea pigs were found by a good Samaritan on August 9, when O’Fallon was under an extreme heat warning and temperatures reached over 95 degrees. Three of the animals were already dead when they were found; the fourth was taken to a veterinarian and is still recovering.

Anyone with information is urged to contact O’Fallon Animal Control at 636-240-3200.

The exercise balls in which the guinea pigs were found. Photo: O’Fallon Missouri Police Department

“Three of these terrified guinea pigs likely baked to death or starved while the lone survivor was forced to watch them die,” says PETA Senior Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA urges anyone with information to come forward so that whoever abandoned these animals can be held accountable—and prevented from hurting anyone else.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and fear, a guinea pig is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.