Hogarth's / Spikey's Hedgehog Rescue

Hogarth's / Spikey's Hedgehog Rescue

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Hogarth's / Spikey's Hedgehog Rescue - Latest News...

The following are extracts from our most recent editions of the Newsletter....

The Hedgehogs of Uist -
How the B.H.P.S. and us
will relocate them....

There can hardly be a household in the UK by now, who since the latter half of last year, haven’t seen the headlines in the TV news, about the proposed cull (the word is killing!) of 5,000 defenseless hedgehogs, on the Uist Islands! During that time, all hedgehog rescuers and wildlife centres & groups, (and just about everyone, who loves animals) in fury have been up in arms, and an emergency Relocation programme has partly been planned by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and all its Members. Since late last year, our Hogarth's (Spikey’s) Hedgehog Rescue is involved too, and this will probably be one of our biggest undertakings so far! And we need as much help as we can get!
To put everyone in the picture, the following is a letter that we received from P. H. Fallows, Chairman of the BHPS, on Monday, 27 January, ‘03 - I have of course responded accordingly, and will continue to inform of any developments....

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January, 2003.

Dear Carer,

The following is a brief note on the current position with the Uist Hedgehogs together with some thoughts on how you might be able to help.

At a meeting in Birmingham is was agreed that a coalition of interested parties would be formed with a view to working together to remove and relocate as many hedgehogs as possible from the Uist Islands. This coalition includes the BHPS and St Tiggywinkles.

The relocation should start around late March 2003 although this is dependent on when the hedgehogs start to come out of hibernation and how long it takes to catch a large enough batch of hedgehogs to relocate.

We are asking for carers help in two ways.

RELEASE

We shall be looking to operate a cascade system when we release the hedgehogs. Our plan is to ask any participating carer to find at least 25 release sites. Each site will have someone who is willing to provide supplementary feeding and also record sightings of the released hedgehogs. Care should be taken to ensure that each site has no badgers, is not prone to flooding, hedgehogs can come and go and that slug pellets are not used. Each site will have 2 hedgehogs released in it. However if a carer does not have that number of sites available, we would still like to hear from you in case there are a number of local carers who can between them find that number of sites. We would also pass any callers who wish to have hedgehogs released in their garden, onto their respective local carers.

The BHPS will provide additional information for participating carers. There would also be information for the release site on making safe for hedgehogs and notes on how to prepare for release, the actual release and on how to monitor the hedgehogs. You would need to make a note of the address of each release site, so the above information could be posted to them. A temporary nest box to be used at the release site would accompany each hedgehog.

The carer would also need a contingency plan in case adverse weather suddenly prevented their release. A temporary holding site that would accommodate 50 hedgehogs would be needed. This could be a block of empty stables or similar. We would try to ensure this was not necessary by keeping up to date with local weather conditions and if there were problems we would not start the hedgehogs on their journey to you.

Each carer would need to identify a suitable drop off point for the hedgehogs e.g. their home, a local supermarket car park (subject to the owners approval) etc. As we are thinking of flying the hedgehogs off the Islands it would be helpful to know whether there is a main, regional or local airfield near to you.

A day before the hedgehogs were to be transported, each carer would receive a phone call to say when the hedgehogs might be expected. The carer would need to contact all the release sites to arrange for collection - for the hedgehogs’ welfare, it should be the same evening as their arrival and as soon after they have been delivered as possible. We would suggest each release site is within a half an hour drive of the drop off point. Each carer would need 50 suitable boxes (e.g. boxes that hold A4 sized photocopying paper) filled with ripped-up newspaper ready to load the hedgehogs into This would enable their carrying boxes to be taken back to the Islands ready for the next batch of hedgehogs. Several black bin bags would also be helpful so that the soiled paper from the carrying boxes could be taken by the carer for disposal.

If you feel you can help with the above please contact the BHPS. We would need to know how many release sites you could organise (we would double this number to calculate the number of hedgehogs you could release). If you have an e-mail address if would be very helpful if we could have it, so we can keep you up to date with what is happening easily and at very little expense.

Until the capture of the hedgehogs is started, we have no idea how many there will be and it is possible that not all the offers of release sites will be taken up. Timing is another unknown factor as we have no idea when the hedgehogs will come out of hibernation and consequently of when capture will begin. So we ask that you are patient and appreciate the difficulties in organising such a mammoth evacuation.

CAPTURE

At present we are not sure who would actually capture the hedgehogs on Uist. However, if you are able to help with the capture in March/April/May (or with the running of the holding station) do let us know so we have an idea of the numbers of helpers available. It would be helpful to know the numbers of hedgehogs you are used to dealing with - this will help us to put together balanced teams of helpers. Please also let us know if you are a Veterinary surgeon or Veterinary nurse, as suitably qualified personnel will be needed at the holding station. If there are any preferred dates again let us know, and also how long you think you would be able to stay. Strict dietary requirements of our helpers might be difficult to meet.

At present, we do not know how much money will be available to cover costs of helpers, but we would not want to see any of our volunteers out of pocket.

If you have any useful contacts that might be able to help with any aspect of the relocation exercise then please pass on their details (with their permission of course). This could include provision or food, equipment, transport indeed and anything that might be of use.

Even if you have provided your name before, please get in touch again with the more specific details that we are asking for.

Yours sincerely,

P H Fallows
Chairman.
British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

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The above is a copy of the letter, that will have been sent to all people on the BHPS carers’ books. Hogarth's/ Spikey’s Hedgehog Rescue already has a list of suitable release-sites/ gardens, but we need a lot more; plus we need people who might be able to help with the aforementioned tasks.
This is an appeal to all our Members - are you able to provide a good home in your garden for 2 hedgehogs, and be willing to provide food for them and keep track of how they are doing? Could you help with the Relocation programme?
If so, and any help will be extremely appreciated, please get in touch, as soon as possible! Thank you!

SPIKEY’S HEDGEHOG RESCUE,
“LYNDALE”, 23 LINDEN ROAD, HINCKLEY, LEICESTERSHIRE,
LE10 0AR.
01455 614013.

E-MAIL: dave_hall4@hotmail.co.uk

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Hogarth's / Spikey's Hedgehog Rescue