Help stop the critical decline of our UK wild hedgehogs.

Long-term studies by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Trust for Ornithology have found that hedgehogs have undergone a drastic decline within Britain over the last two decades. Our humble hedgehog is now listed as a species of principal importance to protect.

Fortunately, there are some dedicated souls who take time to look after wild hedgehogs, in preparation for a return to the wild when they are healthy enough. One of those hedgehog angels is a lady we met called Joan Lockley, who founded West Midland Hedgehog Rescue and continues to spend night and day supporting our prickly friends.

Joan has rescued over 11,000 hedgehogs during almost 20 years. She works tirelessly from morning to late at night, taking in and caring for hedgehogs that have come in for any number of reasons; injury, tangled in netting, dehydration, hunger, hypothermia (yes they do get too cold!), the potentially lethal lungworm, and other medical reasons. Little hoglets too often get orphaned if their mum gets hurt and are not capable of surviving so they desperately need our help.

Perhaps the saddest story is that of the autumn juvenile. Hedgehogs typically have a litter of hoglets early in the year between March and July. In addition though, many mothers will go on to have a 2nd litter later in the year. As there is little time before the winter starts and their food source runs out, there is little hope for these helpless hoglets and they will simply starve or freeze to death without our help.

Joan spends many hours feeding baby and juvenile hoglets or finding suitable homes for them.

She never rests, never goes on holiday and can't visit other people further than a few miles away as she always needs to be on hand to pick up the phone in case another hedgehog needs her help.

Under normal circumstances, Joan works hard providing talks and running fairs and fetes to raise funds for the care of hedgehogs. She needs money to pay for medical treatments, cat food, specialist nutrition, veterinary bills and the upkeep of her beloved 'Hosprickal', where she cares for up to 60 hedgehogs at a time.

Sadly, due to COVID-19, Joan has been unable to do any fundraising which is severely affecting her abilities to do as much rescue and care work. She is a proud, hardworking pensioner but, as you might imagine, she is heartbroken to think that she may not be able offer the same level of care she so desperately want to give.

Please help her. Please consider offering any small amount which will go toward keeping little hoglets warm, making sure hedgehogs don't go hungry, preventing fatal diseases and attending to injuries that would be life threatening without care.

If we, as a nation, don't help these adorable wild creatures, we might never see them again.