Prickly Haven have been very fortunate to receive donations and support from some wonderful people, firstly June Heron and Will, Mandy and Trish, Tara, Viv, Karen and Val because they are always passing stuff to me to either keep the hogs happy and comfy in Rescue or supplying some wonderful car boot items, we try to do one car boot sale a week to keep this rescue afloat financially, especially now, because a lot of our little ones will be here till spring. Most of us who save these little ones take them into our homes, raise money to feed, house and provide 24hour critical care for these downtrodden little mammals because we love them so much and will stop at nothing to treat, rehabilitate, which leads to release back to the wild and, if necessary, somewhere a lot safer than where we found them. None of this would be possible of course without our wonderful Vets close by who are always there for our prickly babies.
On a more serious note, we are having a lot of problems with hedgehogs being attacked by dogs. On Monday evening of this week, a 500 gram female, she wasn’t a big girl by any means but when I got her indoors she was far worse than described, skin was ripped from various parts of her body, she had been possibly laid helpless for more than 24hours by which time fly eggs had been laid on her, she was also cold and in shock. Of course she was rushed to the emergency out of hours vet who thought it was kinder to euthanise her, the poor soul wasn’t doing anything wrong, possibly looking for food and has also given us many hoglets in the short time she was here and she didn’t even cry! This attack happened in Biscop Crescent, I am certain that this is a message to every dog owner out there because these hedgehogs are protected, endangered and at risk of extinction. Also another dog attacked a little hog, Tara was at the right place at the right time, Winston is going to be fine, thankfully.
If you have to let your dog out when it’s dark please watch out for hogs, if you don’t have a security light in your garden, shine a torch to check first, give them a chance to get out of the way because they are a valuable addition to your gardens.
Please contact the British Hedgehog Preservation Society on 01584 890801 or Hedgehog Street for any help or information.
Tip of the week, winter is going to be with us very soon, try to build a hog house so they can be safe, fed and if necessary, have somewhere to hibernate.
