IT’S a risky world out there for hedgehogs and one the biggest dangers they face is garden strimmers.
Janet Mason, who runs Hogwarts Hedgehog Hospital in Barnsley, said thousands of the spiny mammals are maimed or killed by strimmers each year, so to try and reduce this number the British Hedgehog Preservation Society has introduced a scheme to label as many garden strimmers as possible with a warning message.
Barnsley Council is one of the first in the country to address the prickly issue by labelling all of the strimmers used by its groundwork teams warning staff to check grass verges and under bushes before using the equipment.
Janet, of Monks Way, Monk Bretton, praised the council for taking action as she has seen first hand the damage done to hedgehogs, with strimmers ‘taking off their heads, noses and feet’.
Read more in this weeks Barnsley Chronicle
