Report from Chris Smith
Dogs drafted in to help hedgehog cull
Dozens of traps are laid as animal rights groups protest
By David Ross in the Herald, 8 th April 2003
SPECIALLY trained dogs were being brought in last night to help trappers with their cull of hedgehogs on North Uist.
The first nocturnal sweep of the southern end of the island by Scottish Natural Heritage, in search of an estimated 200 hedgehogs, got under way last night.
SNH is carrying out the cull because hedgehogs have eaten their way through a significant number of eggs belonging to internationally important species of birds; waders such as lapwings, snipe, and redshank. By 2000, the 17,000 pairs of waders in the Uists recorded in 1983 had been halved.
All the killing will have to be completed by May 23. After that date, too many hedgehogs will have dependent young to allow SNH to continue with its programme of eradication under the Uist wader project, which has attracted international condemnation, hate mail, and threats.
The debate is still raging on the islands, but the volunteers at Uist Hedgehog Rescue, who yesterday tended to 19 "saved" hedgehogs at their sanctuary in a Portakabin on Benbecula, said there would be no direct confrontation.
Meanwhile, SNH trappers were laying dozens of traps baited with fish in North Uist. They will be checked today, but it is thought possible the traps would draw a complete blank. Therefore, trappers were sent out last night to try and spot their prey with lights so powerful they required special dispensation under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
After being caught, the hedgehogs will be given a gas anaesthetic and then put to sleep with a lethal injection.
George Anderson, SNH's spokesman on Uist, revealed yesterday that the six trappers could expect canine reinforcements. He said: "The dogs are not hunters but are trained to locate by scent . . . They would tell us where the hedgehogs are. They wouldn't get near the hedgehogs. They don't catch them at all. I don't want to say where the dogs are at present, because there could be a security problem with animal rights campaigners."
Around £90,000 will be spent on North Uist this year, followed by action in Benebecula and South Uist.
Most organisations now accept that the hedgehogs have to go. Introduced into South Uist in 1974 to help with garden pests, this alien species bred until its numbers are now estimated to be around 5000.
As they bred, they headed north through South Uist, into Benbecula and then on to the southern end of North Uist.
This is where SNH wants to make a stand, before they reach the likes of the Balranald bird reserve and other protected areas. The agency insists that a cull is the only way.
However, Advocates for Animals, St Tiggywinkles Hospital, and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, among others, believe the animals can be safely relocated.
They have come together in Uist Hedgehog Rescue. Ross Minnett, a spokesman, said: "SNH seem to have backed themselves into a corner and can't be seen to be losing face."
He said the 19 hedgehogs that had been saved had come from Benbecula and South Uist. They would not have been in danger from SNH this year but their young would have been in future years.
Negotiations were under way to fly the saved hedgehogs down to Ayrshire, where they would be checked and then sent to approved locations. They hope 80% would survive.
However, Mr Anderson said: "If they are wrong, 46% will suffer a slow and lingering death. Doing it our way at least means that 100% will die quickly and painlessly."
A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said: "The Scottish Executive supports the findings which conclude that such a cull is necessary."
© The Herald, April 8th 2003
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