Cull of 5,000 hedgehogs is spiked after animal lovers protest

Plans to kill more than 5,000 hedgehogs on islands off the north-west of Scotland were abandoned yesterday in the face of widespread hostility from conservationists and animal lovers.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) had claimed that a cull was vital if important populations of wading birds were to be protected from the egg-scavenging animals, which have destroyed 60 per cent of some colonies.

The problem is worst on the islands of North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist, where the hedgehog population has exploded since the animals were introduced to the Western Isles in 1974.

Scottish Natural Heritage is obliged by European law to protect the bird populations of the Uist islands and was adamant that, despite the animals' popular image among the general public, a policy of total eradication was the only viable option.

A barrage of protests from hedgehog lovers, who threatened to mount a legal challenge to the plans for a cull, forced a meeting of the Scottish Natural Heritage board in Perth yesterday to reconsider the idea.

Instead of a cull, a spokesman for SNH said that the organisation would now be looking at alternative ways of controlling the hedgehog population explosion – including sterilisation and moving hedgehogs to the mainland.

"There has been a lot of publicity about this in the past week, and a good thing is that there are a number of organisations and individuals who are saying they want to help," said John Markland, chairman of SNH.

"We will work with the animal-rescue people and the hedgehog conservation people along with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Scottish Executive's environment and rural affairs division to stop the predation by the hedgehog population."