Guinea-pigs in blasphemy?

When writing about guinea-pigs as the main course in some Peruvian paintings of the Last Supper, I came to think about a story which was reported some years ago from Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, Germany. It took me some time to locate the story on the Internet, but I was at last able to remember that the story was retold by Peter W. Poulsen in Icon, the journal for students of religious studies at the university of Copenhagen back in 2002. It was based on a small story in Hamburger Abendblatt in 1999.

Hagenbeck zoo has a large open outdoor area for free ranging guinea pigs. It consists of a large grassy plain and a miniature alpine village where the critters roam and are their own masters. Among the buildings is also a church standing two meters tall; a monumental building for such small animals.

Way back, now about 40 years ago, a local catholic pastor was enraged when he over time observed how the critters entered the church at all times of day. Only God knows what blasphemous acts the furry animals conducted behind the walls of the church, hidden from view of the priest. The case of the sinful activities of the guinea pigs became a major topic for Sunday lectures in the church, and soon sufficient public support was raised to demand that the door of the church was shut for the critters once and for all, and so was their access to Christianity.

The case was first reopened after 30 years in excommunication, when the Catholic Church and Hagenbeck zoo in 1999 came to an agreement that the doors would again be opened. By then the zoo had received complaints from hundreds of children. Why were the doors of the other houses in the village open, but the church closed, they asked. Do not guinea pigs have access to God? The church backed down and gave the following statement:

“Of course guinea pigs should go to church. The attitude of the church to the creatures of creation has become more conscious and open. The story of creation places the animals of creation under man’s supervision”.

For the study of visual religion, and perhaps for cognitive theorists as well, it is fascinating to take note of yet another example of how animal behavior is made anthropomorphic. First by the animal-keepers when they decided to build an alpine village for animals originally living in burrows, and then later by the priest who must have judged the behavior and church-going practices of the critters by human standards. Also the children’s interpretation has this tendency. The function of the church is important as well, as children and priest alike understand the model-church as a sacred building that may be used or misused by their furry congregation.



(Photo by AMagill)