Hedgepigs and Hoglets Rescue

Hedgehogs are in real trouble. Hedgepigs and Hoglets Rescue was founded when I came across a poorly hedgehog being pecked by a seagull and I started looking into their plight, this was back in 2016. We are in the process of relocating and from March we will be based in St Buryan, west Cornwall.  Hedgepigs and Hoglets exists to try and turn back the tide on this beautiful creatures plight. It is thought there were over 1.55 million hedgehogs in 1995 (JNCC) whereas now it could be as low as 522,000 left in the UK.  They were recently added to the IUCN red list of our most endangered mammals, since 2000 we have lost half of our rural and a third of our urban hedgehogs.  Hedgehogs are disappearing due to a lack of natural spaces and fragmented habitats together with other human activities.

Our team treat hedgehogs who have lungworm, roundworm and all manner of parasites, we work with vets to treat their injuries and we have ICU incubators, nebulisers and all manner of equipment. Our greatest daily cost is drugs and meds. We are also fundraising for new premises as we have outgrown our current building. 

We now feel that we need to do more in terms of supporting the creation and preservation of suitable habitats so that released hedgehogs that we have invested all of our time and resources on will have a fighting chance of survival in the wild and be able to breed and thrive.  We know there is the potential for substantial biodiversity benefits within our domestic gardens (State of Nature, 2019) and this would contribute to mitigating climate change and benefit the species   We need to manage our gardens hedgerows and natural spaces better.

We will be launching two linked initiatives, "Go the Hole Hog" project and "Hog Hedge" project within our rescue.  We need to give local wildlife a source of food and shelter, a "wildlife corridor" that helps hedgehogs, dormice etc stay on the move or nest safely and encourages us all to engage with nature.  In essence, Go the Hole Hog will practically support and advise by placing hog holes in fences, walls etc particularly for those who are unable to carry this out themselves and Hog Hedge project will offer planting of easy to manage traditional hedge mixes and plants that encourage beetles and caterpillars (a hedgehogs favourite food).  Cornwall County Council will give us match funding for the Hog Hedge Project if we manage to achieve £2000 in crowdfunding donations.

We know it is terribly important to nurture children`s love of nature and ignite their passion for caring for wildlife and we are going to develop our visits to schools, community groups and early years provision to deliver visits and nature play in spring 2022, (covid dependent ofcourse).  

We wouldn`t be able to do any of this if it was not for the support of people donating funds to us and we know only too well that  adage "every little helps" but this is so very true for us, every small donation combines to keep our charity afloat. None of the team are paid any wages for their time but we all share a passion for nature and want to save the hedgehog and other native wild mammals from becoming so rare that we never see them.

Thank you for taking the time to read about our story and plans.