Report from Chris Smith
Hedgehog campaign rekindled
From BBC Scotland News, 23 rd January 2003
Uist hedgehogs face another fight against extinction.
Animal lovers are drawing up battle plans to resist a further cull of
hedgehogs in the Outer Hebrides.
Uist Hedgehog Rescue (UHR) is meeting in Birmingham on Friday to see
how it can fight a second Scottish Natural Heritage-led cull on the
island.
UHR is hoping to persuade celebrities such as Sting and Joanna Lumley
to go to North Uist and help stop the cull.
The scheme was deemed necessary because hedgehogs eat the eggs of
important local ground-nesting birds.
SNH killed just 66 hedgehogs there last year at a cost of £100,000, or
about £1,500 per animal.
Despite the seemingly poor numbers, SNH believes it killed 70% of the
hedgehogs in its first target area in 2003.
Death sentence
The hedgehogs were killed by lethal injection after first receiving a
knock-out gas.
Last month SNH agreed to spend £186,475 per year to help rid Uist of
hedgehogs, with the cull set to be extended to the adjoining island of
Benbecula during the latest drive.
Some 5,000 hedgehogs are thought to be at risk.
Protesters, such as UHR, have strongly attacked the cull as "inhumane"
and a waste of taxpayers' money with more than 3,000 letters of
objection received by SNH this year.
Last year UHR, a consortium of animal protection, rehabilitation and
rescue organisations, handed out £5 to islanders for each rescued
hedgehog.
They saved and relocated 156 hedgehogs during their summer-long campaign.
Star backing
Celebrities including Sting, Sir Paul McCartney, Twiggy, Joanna
Lumley, Sir Tim Rice and Watership Down author Richard Adams all
offered the animals homes over the summer and UHR is hoping they will
do the same this year.
The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), which is also
involved in this year's rescue plans, still has £40,000 of the £70,000
raised to help save the hedgehogs from last year.
But it says a new appeal - first among its members - may be necessary
to mount the new rescue mission.
Fay Vaas, BHPS chief executive, said: "I hope we will mount a rescue
campaign.
"It is very unlikely we will not be there but we don't have enough
money and there may be another appeal."
© BBC Scotland News, 23 rd January 2003
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