Report from Chris Smith
First island hedgehogs rescued from cull are take to mainland
By James Freeman in the Herald, 17 th April 2003
THE first 50 hedgehogs to be rescued on Uist and Benbecula will arrive on the Scottish mainland today.
The animals, which have been collected by staff and volunteers from Advocates for Animals, St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Rescue Centre and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, will be ferried to the mainland and then driven to a wildlife rescue centre in Ayrshire. They will then be relocated to gardens, woods and fields by local volunteers.
Many have been taken to the rescue centre on Benbecula by local people collecting a £5 bounty. Veterinary nurses have checked the animals which will be transported in individual, ventilated boxes.
The Uist Hedgehog Rescue has been run to counter a cull being carried out for the last three weeks by Scottish Natural Heritage which so far has collected and killed 26 hedgehogs, 16 of them brought to SNH officers by local people.
The purge was made necessary when the non-native hedgehogs, introduced 20 years ago as garden pets, began eating their way through the eggs and young of the vast and internationally-important wading bird populations, first on South Uist and then Benbecula.
SNH remains convinced the existing science suggests that most relocated hedgehogs, competing with established populations, will die of starvation in their new homes.
Ross Minett, of Advocates for Animals, said: "I suppose we have failed in our original objective which was to persuade SNH to see the light and hand over any hedgehogs to us rather than killing them. That now looks unlikely.
"The rescue, however, is speeding up."
© The Herald, April 17th 2003
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