Report from Chris Smith
Cull of 250 hedgehogs 'has cost £190,000'
By Tom Peterkin in the Daily Telegraph, 31 st May 2004
The cull of hedgehogs in the Outer Hebrides ended at the weekend amid claims from animal rights activists that it has cost the taxpayer more than £700 to kill each beast.
It was estimated that more than 250 hedgehogs were killed during this year's cull, which cost Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Executive wildlife agency, £190,000.
The nine-week cull was accompanied by a rescue operation mounted by animal rights campaigners, who spent £2,500 to provide £20 bounties to islanders who handed over animals to them. The rescuers managed to save nearly 190 hedgehogs by relocating them on themainland.
Ross Minnet, of Uist Hedgehog Rescue, said: "Our rescue has cost the taxpayer nothing - in fact islanders have received £20 for each hedgehog brought to us. However, taxpayers have paid more than £700 for each hedgehog that SNH has killed this year alone. That is an absolute disgraceful waste of public money. This is on top of the hundreds of thousands of pounds already spent on this project."
"We urge SNH to stop killing these healthy wild animals and to work with UHR next year to simply move the hedgehogs to the mainland."
More than 100 people took part in the rescue attempt, although a dozen locals preferred to help SNH by handing in hedgehogs to be killed.
Hedgehogs, which were first introduced to the islands in 1974, have been blamed for devouring the eggs of the native snipe, dunlin, ringed plover, redshank and lapwing on North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist.
© The Daily Telegraph, 31 st May 2004
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