Calls for law to protect beleaguered hedgehogs
MP Mitchell backs campaign as numbers in UK plummet
LAWS are needed to protect hedgehogs after the number living in the countryside fell by half, according to a Birmingham MP.
Andrew Mitchell, MP for Sutton Coldfield, spoke in the House of Commons after 108,000 people signed a petition calling for greater protection.
He said: “Surveys show time and again just how loved hedgehogs are by British people. They have been voted Britain’s most popular wild mammal in several surveys.”
It is already an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to kill a hedgehog.
But conservationists and many MPs want them to be declared a protected species, so that it also becomes an offence to disturb or destroy the places where they live.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Mitchell said: “This would ensure that their nesting sites, as well as the hedgehogs themselves, are protected from disturbance or harm, and would offer hedgehogs the same protection as hazel dormice, red squirrels, water vole, otters and all our bat species.”
The MP warned: “Over the past two decades, hedgehog numbers across the UK have plummeted by 50% in rural areas and 30% in urban areas.”
Other MPs calling for action to protect hedgehogs included Blaydon MP Liz Twist.
She said: “The hedgehog has been voted Britain’s most popular wild mammal in several surveys over the years.
“As we heard, since 2000 hedgehog numbers in the UK have declined by half in rural areas and by a third in urban ones.
“According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the main reasons for the decline are the destruction of their shelters and habitats, increased levels of traffic, poorly planned roads and the use of pesticides.
“Those are all things that we can and should work to prevent.
“The hedgehog has been listed as vulnerable to extinction in the UK, conceivably within the next decade if nothing is done to reverse the decline.”
Environment minister Rebecca Pow said: “This Government are
absolutely committed to ensuring that our native species thrive, as we take action to address the declines that we are all so sad about.”
She added: “I am a great fan of hedgehogs, not least from reading all my children Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, the amazing Beatrix Potter book.”
The Minister said she was “deeply concerned” by studies which have classed hedgehogs as vulnerable.
She said the Government was reviewing laws designed to protect animals and would launch a consultation later in the year.