Hedgehogs have always been a much-loved feature
of the British countryside and are known as the gardener’s friend
due to their appetite for slugs and snails and other garden pests.
However, hedgehogs are in need of help and are now even classed
as an endangered species in Britain. Road casualties and loss of
habitat are the main causes of a decline in the U.K. hedgehog population.
Changes in farming and land management have led to fewer places
for hedgehogs to live and forage in the countryside and this, added
to a loss of gardens to forage in as people turn them into car
parking spaces or decking-covered patios all means less room for
our spiny friends.
Why Hedgehogs?
Annie Parfitt, who lives near Brimscombe,
was so distressed by the plight of our hedgehogs that she set up
the Help A Hedgehog Hospital to care for sick, injured and orphaned
hedgehogs and hoglets. Annie is a Volunteer Carer for the British
Hedgehog Preservation Society and the Help a Hedgehog Hospital is
run solely on donations from hedgehog lovers. In order to find out
more about the hedgehog population in Gloucestershire, she is starting
to record sightings and other information about our local “hogs”
as another of the suggested reasons for their decline is the fragmentation
of their habitat with populations becoming cut off from each other
by roads and other developments.
Download our Mission Statement
Our Core team
- Annie Parfitt…founder, Hospital manager and primary carer. Annie
has ultimate responsibility for the running of 3H and any major
policy decisions.
- Pauhla Whitaker…Core team Chairperson, administration and membership
secretary, assistant carer
- Julien Crowther…Core team Minutes Secretary, assistant carer
- John Crowther…Core team records co-ordinator, assistant carer
- Sian Evans…Core team Treasurer, Google mapping co-ordinator
Our Wardens and Volunteers
We have an extensive list of volunteers who are prepared to help
with emergency care, holiday cover and collecting hedgehogs e.t.c.
and several will be attending the carers’ course, run in conjunction
with the British Hedgehog Preservation Society at Vale Wildlife Hospital
near Tewkesbury. We have also set-up a network of hedgehog wardens
covering most of the county. They act as a point of contact with
the public at local level, can give advice on non-urgent cases, assist
with the collection and release of hedgehogs and have responsibility
for collecting sightings of hedgehogs, both alive and dead and including
mothers and babies to add to the Google map.
If you are interested in joining us, please get
in touch
