Woman with house full of hedgehogs says ‘no more’
In our ongoing, occasional series about charismatic mega fauna, we feature this story about our spikey neighbourhood friends and their version of Florence Nightingale. It tells us:
A woman who has filled both her and her mother’s home with rescued hedgehogs says she cannot take in any more.
Paula Garner, from Barrow upon Soar in Leicestershire, has been nursing the spiky animals back to health for the past five years.
She said she was currently caring for about 80 hedgehogs and had reached her limit.
It follows a spike in new arrivals due to the hot weather and a mystery illness affecting young hedgehogs.
Ms Garner said her rescue operation started five years ago when her mother found a maggot-infested hedgehog and no existing sanctuaries had space.
A local vet showed her how to help the animals return to full fitness and when she posted about it on Facebook, more people began bringing her sick hedgehogs to care for.
Her house is now home to dozens of recuperating hogs and hoglets, and she uses her mother’s house in a neighbouring village as a makeshift intensive care unit.