30 Years of Caring for Lancashire's Hedgehogs 

Hedgehogs are one of the UK's much-loved creatures and have seen a harsh decline in the last 70 years. Warmer winters, new roads and building projects have significantly affected their habitats and behavioural patterns.

Many casualties we receive often require weeks of treatment which can be very costly as well as extremely time consuming. The costs of medical care, veterinary bills and food are always a major item for us.  

We are rescuing, treating and returning to the wild countless hedgehogs that would die without help and we fund this with our own fundraising efforts and by public donations.  We do not receive Government or Council funding.  

By supporting our work you will be making a direct contribution to the survival of our local wildlife. We are always very grateful to receive a donation no matter how small, and every single one really helps.

Much of our equipment used over the last 30 years is slowly being replaced with modern alternatives.

We rely on donations to buy incubators, heat pads, indoor and outdoor cages.

Other items that would help in general and used on a daily basis include: 

• Fleece material to make blankets for bedding
• Newspapers
• Kitchen rolls
• Meat based cat food
• Fleece bobble hats (make sleeping bags for the baby hedgehogs)
• Strong black bin bags
• Small/medium size packing boxes to send out fundraising items
• Parcel tape, sellotape
• 2nd class / 2nd class large stamps
• Jiffy bags - new or used

Our centre is a hive of activity 24 hours a day 7 days a week, just like an NHS hospital our work is focused on the patients. 

We need to raise funds to be able to pay for professional help with veterinary services, book keeping and accounting, the website and everything that takes our time away from treating the hedgehogs in our care, but this costs money.

We aim to release all our hedgehog patients back into the wild, and indeed have a very high success rate of doing so.  

A great deal of time, effort and expense goes into getting a sick or injured hedgehog to this stage, and therefore it is vitally important that it is released back into it's natural habitat as safe as possible, and preferably into the area where originally found. 

We are also constantly searching for suitable pre-release gardens for hedgehogs needing a little time outdoors prior to release, to make sure they are able to manage back in the wild. Large enclosed gardens that can provide a more natural wild habitat are ideal.  

This allows us to make sure the hedgehog has nest building capabilities and able to forage for it's natural food whilst being monitored from a distance in a safe outdoor environment.  We train the property owners in what they need to do if they wish to help us.