🚀 go-pugleaf

Islanders paid to save hedgehogs 
Islanders are being offered #5 for every hedgehog they can save from a
cull. 
The rescue operation on the Scottish islands has been launched by a
coalition of animal welfare groups. 

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is seeking to cull the first of 5,000
hedgehogs next week in an effort to help preserve rare wading birds on the
Uists in the Western Isles. 

It said it would go ahead with the cull by lethal injection because
transportation is cruel. 

However, the Uist Hedgehog Rescue coalition is offering islanders #5 for
every live hedgehog delivered to its collection point for transportation
to the mainland. 

Resettlement on the mainland 

Hedgehog specialists are set to brief islanders on North and South Uist
and Benbecula on how to catch and care for the animals. 

Those behind the coalition include Advocates for Animals, the Mammal
Society, the Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital and the British Hedgehog
Preservation Society. 

After paying for the hedgehog collection, the animals will be flow off for
resettlement on the mainland. 

SNH said its research shows that transported animals often end up starving
to death in unfamiliar surroundings. 

It is determined to press ahead with the cull of the first 200 hedgehogs. 

Preying on eggs 

SNH said the move was regrettable but necessary to preserve the eggs of
rare birds. 

A handful of hedgehogs were first introduced to the Uists in 1974 to help
control slugs and snails in islanders' gardens. 

Their numbers mushroomed but so did the threat to important populations of
waders including dunlin, lapwing, redshank and snipe. 

Recent surveys have shown that the numbers of some species of wading birds
dropped by nearly 60% in the last five years. 

SNH said the hedgehogs were jeopardising the populations of some birds by
preying on their eggs. 

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/2886673.stm