Campaign urges clubs to be mindful of hedgehogs
As football season comes to a close, hedgehog conservationists are gearing up to launch a league of their own - The Hedgehog Friendly Football League!
The British Hedgehog Preservation Society says that it has been in touch with all the Premiership and Championship football clubs, urging them to be mindful of hedgehogs.
The campaign calls on clubs to put reminder stickers on all their ground maintenance equipment and urges users of the equipment to check for hedgehogs before they proceed.
The society has been delighted with the response so far, with some teams agreeing to hand out leaflets for Hedgehog Awareness Week (30 April - 6 May), feature the campaign in match programmes or have mascots photographed with #hedgehogweek signs.
Barnsley, Brighton & Hove Albion and Burton Albion currently top the hedgehog-friendly league table, with those clubs who have refused stickers sitting at the bottom.
Fay Vass, chief executive of BHPS, commented: “We thought it would be a fun way of spreading the word to football fans, some of the clubs have really got involved and are doing wonderful work on behalf of our prickly friends, other clubs are facing relegation of course! We are hoping that fans will get on board and ask their clubs to join in, or be more pro-active to improve their position!”
While the campaign is meant to be light-hearted, it does highlight an important issue. Each year the BHPS takes in hedgehogs with horrific injuries caused by strimmers and mowers, many of which are killed instantly. The BHPS stresses that a quick check before using the machines greatly reduces the risk of this happening.
Image (C) Burton Albion
Birmingham Dogs Home has issued an urgent winter appeal as it faces more challenges over the Christmas period.
