Report from Chris Smith
Protest Against Hedgehog Cull Taking Place
By Andrew Black, Scottish Press Association in the Scotsman, 2 nd April 2004
A protest ahead of controversial island hedgehog culls was getting under way today.
The Duchess of Hamilton was being joined by animal campaigners in Edinburgh to condemn
the Western Isles programme, due to begin next Monday, as inhumane.
Environmental quango Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) said the cull, taking place on North
Uist and Benbecula, was necessary because the spiky creatures ate the eggs of the protected
breeding wader birds which populated the islands.
Speaking ahead of the protest, the Duchess, who was also being joined by a giant hedgehog
mascot called Hamish, said: "It is sad that Scottish Natural Heritage is planning to kill yet more
healthy hedgehogs on the Uists.
"SNH has consistently failed to listen to scientific and expert advice and experience which
proves that these animals could and should be simply moved to the mainland."
She added: "I urge SNH, the Scottish Executive and RSPB Scotland to abandon this senseless
killing policy and relocate the hedgehogs – a kinder and far less expensive option."
SNH had agreed to look at a programme of relocation but plans for a wildlife charity to
undertake one were shelved earlier this year over a funding row.
The People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) had been gearing up for a trial relocation
project but SNH decided that to fund it would have been a wrongful use of taxpayers' money.
The islands where the cull is due to take place support some of the most important populations
of breeding waders in the British Isles, such as dunlin, redshank and oystercatcher.
A survey in 1983 showed the islands held at least 17,000 pairs of breeding waders, including a
quarter of the total UK breeding population of both dunlin and ringed plover and about 10% of
the UK population of redshank.
Subsequent surveys carried out in 1995 and 2000 found that wader numbers on South Uist and
Benbecula had declined dramatically.
The original hedgehog cull on North Uist, which took place between April 7 and May 23 last
year, resulted in the removal of 66 of the animals.
Animal rights activists bombarded SNH staff with thousands of letters of protest, a large
number of which resulted from a campaign being run by Advocates for Animals and the British
Hedgehog Preservation Society.
Another pressure group, Uist Hedgehog Rescue, attempted to disrupt the cull last summer and
claimed they removed 120 hedgehogs as the cull took place.
SNH said the fate of those animals had yet to be "systemically recorded or reported".
© The Scotsman, 2 nd April 2004
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