News

16 December 2003

Press statement on Uist hedgehogs

Advocates for Animals, British Hedgehog Preservation Society, International Animal Rescue and Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue are outraged and disgusted that the Board of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has today accepted proposals to kill hedgehogs on the Uists and Benbecula in 2004. The organisations believe that SNH’s decision to kill yet more healthy wild animals instead of moving them to the mainland is a shocking use of taxpayers’ money and an unnecessary waste of animal life. Advocates wrote to SNH’s Board last week urging it to accept proposals for a "scientific trial translocation" and to reject proposals for a mass killing. The letter was supported by a report, Uist Hedgehogs, which countered the many spurious arguments used by SNH to support its much-criticised killing policy.

During 2003, SNH caught and killed 66 hedgehogs on the islands at a cost of well over £100,000 of taxpayers’ money. The consortium of animal protection, rehabilitation and rescue organisations working together as Uist Hedgehog Rescue (UHR) successfully relocated 156 hedgehogs. Each year at least 5,000 hedgehogs are released into the wild by experienced and respected wildlife organisations, including the RSPCA and the SSPCA.

Advocates for Animals, British Hedgehog Preservation Society, International Animal Rescue, Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue and other members of UHR have already agreed with SNH and other members of the Uist Wader Project (UWP) that action needs to be taken to protect the populations of ground-nesting wader birds on the Islands. That is not in dispute. However, this can easily be secured through non-lethal action that has been proven to work. It is not necessary to kill yet more perfectly healthy hedgehogs.

All the evidence continues to show that the vast majority of members of the public are totally opposed to the killing of hedgehogs and fail to understand the logic behind the killing policy of SNH and UWP. The public does not want to see their taxes spent on killing hedgehogs. Uist Hedgehog Rescue will now meet as soon as possible to discuss what action needs to be taken to counter SNH’s scientifically flawed and unethical killing policy.

Notes to Editors
The report, Uist Hedgehogs, by Hugh Warwick, an independent researcher and writer on environmental and ecological matters, which discusses many of the points put forward by the UWP as the basis for killing hedgehogs on the islands can be viewed at: www.advocatesforanimals.org/pdf/UistHedgehogs.pdf.

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