Hedgehog Awareness Week

Please do at least one extra thing to raise awareness of the hedgehogs’ plight during Hedgehog Awareness Week.

You might contact the council or a local tool hire company and ask them to use the free strimmer stickers on their machines –
(see https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/hedgehog-heroes-roll-honour/)You might organise an event such as a coffee morning, cake sale, jumble sale, sponsored event or fun day.

You could text HHOG18 £5 to 70070 to donate £5 to BHPS. (You can change amount to £1, £2, £3, £4, or £10 donate those amounts). You can also find a JustGiving Appeal page at https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/bhps/haw18… and if you are holding and event or doing a sponsored something you can link in with The British Hedgehog Preservation Society there.

You might also encourage the display of information in a library, school or garden centre,

You could post leaflets in your area letting people know how to help hedgehogs in their gardens.

If you have found a hedgehog you are concerned about please use gardening gloves to collect it up, bring it indoors and put it in a high sided cardboard box with an old towel or fleece in the bottom for the hedgehog to hide under.

Fill a hot water bottle so that when it is wrapped in a towel there is a nice gentle heat coming through and put that in the bottom of the box with the hedgehog, ensuring it has room to get off the bottle and making sure the bottle is kept warm (if allowed to go cold it will do more harm than good). Put the box somewhere quiet.

Offer meaty cat or dog food and fresh water then call us as soon as possible on 01584 890 801 for further advice and the numbers of local contacts. Note that out of office hours there is an answerphone, if you have a hedgehog, please press option 1 and listen to the emergency numbers, these volunteers are not representatives of BHPS but they will give you advice and numbers of local contacts.