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News20 February 2007 Uist Hedgehog Rescue delighted as end of cull announcedScottish Natural Heritage calls off cull in favour of translocationThe Uist Hedgehog Rescue coalition (UHR)¹ is delighted at Scottish Natural Heritage’s (SNH) announcement today that the cull of hedgehogs on the Uists has ended. SNH’s Board has agreed to end the killing policy in favour of a translocation trial². UHR has opposed the killing of hedgehogs on the Uists since Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) announced its lethal policy in 2002. In order to save as many healthy wild animals as possible, UHR has rescued and relocated 756 hedgehogs from the Uists over the last four years. The coalition of hedgehog experts, animal welfare and wildlife rescue and rehabilitation organisations has offered to help SNH with translocating hedgehogs, in light of the expertise and experience it has gained from undertaking this process. The end of the cull follows last week’s announcement from the Scottish SPCA that it had changed its policy in support of UHR’s call for the killing to end. The policy change was attributed to new scientific research confirming that the relocation of hedgehogs from the Uists to mainland Scotland is humane. The Uist Wader Project (UWP), consisting of SNH, the Scottish Executive and RSPB Scotland, has been killing hedgehogs on the islands since 2003 in an attempt to improve the breeding success of ground-nesting birds. Translocation of hedgehogs was considered as an option by the UWP, but rejected due to concerns that translocated animals would starve. The Scottish SPCA has previously supported this position. UWP has killed 658 hedgehogs on the islands. Spokesperson for UHR, Ross Minett, said: "At long last the totally unnecessary killing of these healthy hedgehogs has ended. Whilst the policy change is of course welcome it is disgraceful that it has come too late for the hundreds of hedgehogs already killed by SNH. As we have said all along, we believe that scientific research and decades of practical experience have shown that translocation is the humane and ethical solution to this problem. We have offered SNH the benefit of our expertise and experience of translocating hedgehogs from the Uists. We sincerely hope that lessons will be learned from this experience and that conservation organisations will incorporate a respect for animals and their welfare into future policies." UHR’s call for an end to the cull was supported by a number of high-profile people including Joanna Lumley, Brain May, Dame Jane Goodall, Virginia McKenna, Carla Lane and Jenny Seagrove. Notes to Editors 1. UHR is a coalition of hedgehog experts, animal welfare and wildlife rescue organisations consisting of Advocates for Animals, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue Trust and International Animal Rescue. For more information see www.uhr.org.uk 2. The paper from SNH officers to SNH's Board proposing an end to the hedgehog cull can be found at: http://www.snh.org.uk/board/detail.asp?id=268. The Board of SNH is to agree its policy at a meeting at Great Glen House, Leachkin Road, Inverness from 9.30am on Tuesday 20 February. The SNH paper acknowledges that no comprehensive data have been collated to assess bird populations on the islands since 2000. |
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