Report from Chris Smith
Dogs fail to bolster hedgehog cull
By James Hamilton in the Sunday Herald, 4 th May 2003
Dogs have been brought in to speed up the culling of hedgehogs in the Outer Hebrides - as rescuers celebrate saving their 100 th animal.
The dogs started work on Tuesday but only a handful of hedgehogs have been killed since then. A total of 35 have been put down since the cull began on April 7.
Rescuers are flying out another 46 off the islands tomorrow and are delighted the dogs do not seem to be making a difference.
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"We have never header of dogs being used to sniff out hedgehogs before and we are delighted they do not appear to be working," said Tina Swindle from Uist Hedgehog Rescue. The four dogs - three pointers and a collie - and the two handlers were taught to look for hedgehogs last year.
"We think they will help us locate the hedgehogs - but they will not catch them," said a spokesman for SNH. "They will just find them. There appears to be hedgehog hotspots and areas where there are none.
"This is not a race with the rescuers. We are looking in areas where there are not many hedgehogs to contain their geographical reach."
Around half the 100 saved hedgehogs have been turned in by islanders claiming a £5 bounty for each. Scottish Natural Heritage, which is leading the cull of 5000 hedgehogs on the Uists, also had more than half of its hedgehogs handed in by islanders. The hedgehogs are knocked out by gas and then given a lethal injection.
A consortium of animal welfare groups have raised nearly £80,000 to save the hedgehogs. Some 300 are at risk this year, but 5,000 more are set to be killed in total. More than 1200 letters of objection have been lodged against the £90,000 cull.
The hedgehogs are being removed because they are eating the eggs of rare wading birds. A survey revealed that in the last decade some species of nesting waders in the Uists have fallen by 50 % - and by as much as 70 % in certain hedgehog hotspots.
© Sunday Herald, 4 th May 2003
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