{"id":59376,"date":"2025-08-11T06:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T06:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/59376\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T06:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T06:42:08","slug":"perth-prisoners-accused-of-eating-guinea-pigs-from-animal-shelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/59376\/","title":{"rendered":"Perth prisoners accused of eating guinea pigs from animal shelter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prisoners have allegedly been killing and eating guinea pigs taken during their supervised release to work at an animal shelter in Perth.<\/p>\n<p>The male inmates allegedly involved were part of the Section 95 work release program at the minimum-security Wooroloo Prison Farm, which allows approved prisoners day release to work on projects out in the community.<\/p>\n<p>Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce said the alarm was raised\ufeff after a prison staff member found guinea pig carcasses stored at a shed outside the prison borders.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff&#8221;They didn&#8217;t get them into the prison, they have an external area where we maintain tool sheds, things like that for working in the community,&#8221; he told Nine radio&#8217;s 6PR Breakfast.<\/p>\n<p>Royce said the allegations raised security concerns, as the Section 95 prisoners are discouraged from eating off-site.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In this case, there was a deal done, obviously. That will come out in the investigation,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;\ufeffThe issue for me isn&#8217;t so much the guinea pigs, as bad as that sounds, it&#8217;s more about the security and making sure that we follow the rules and keep everyone safe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Royce has ordered an investigation into what he said were disturbing allegations.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/4d33378b-695d-41c7-a7dc-2375bf98e761.jpeg\"   alt=\"WA Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce.\"\/>WA Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce. (Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>All Section 95 programs have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Premier Roger Cook \ufeffsaid he was appalled that an animal surrendered to the shelter had allegedly been &#8220;someone&#8217;s meal in prison&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It sounds like disgusting behaviour. I&#8217;m not against eating guinea pigs, I understand in some cultures, they&#8217;re considered a delicacy, but it&#8217;s inappropriate for prison personnel on day release to take advantage of an opportunity at an animal refuge,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Cook added that the suspension was a &#8220;lost opportunity for those prisoners looking forward to a little bit of extra liberty&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s on them and obviously, those particular prisoners will be dealt with if there&#8217;s any rules or guidelines that&#8217;s been contravened,&#8221; he said. \ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Wooroloo Prison Farm is a male prison in outer Perth, about 55km north-east of the CBD.<\/p>\n<p>The prison has been operating the Section 95 program since 1998 to provide essential services \ufeffto local communities.<\/p>\n<p>Under Department of Justice policies, \ufeffprisoners working in the program are not allowed to receive any goods or bring back any goods to the prison without approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prisoners have allegedly been killing and eating guinea pigs taken during their supervised release to work at an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-59376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}