Our centre has successfully released thousands of rehabilitated hedgehogs back into the wild over the last thirty years
From small beginnings in a back garden shed in Carleton, Poulton-le-Fylde in 1990, the Lancashire Hedgehog Care Trust has grown over thirty years to become the renowned specialist hedgehog care and rehabilitation centre it is today, serving the Fylde Coast and Lancashire. It was set up to help the countless hedgehogs that are being injured and maimed through close contact with humans. This is mainly due to loss of their natural habitat as we continue to build on our ever-diminishing countryside. There are also injuries caused by garden machinery – strimmers in particular, poisonings from the use of pesticides, weedkiller, slug pellets etc and then of course the carnage we all see daily on the roads. The list of problems we are creating for wildlife in general, and hedgehogs in particular, is endless.
The early days were extremely busy, raising much needed funds as well as caring for a constant stream of prickly patients. We provided schools and groups with talks, participated at events, gave radio and TV interviews (we were on BBC's North West Tonight!) and we lost count of how many times we were in the local papers. We provided thousands of caring individuals with advice whilst learning how to run our registered animal rescue Charity. The hard work over nearly three decades of our voluntary dedication eventually took its toll. A bout of severe illness led to a move of location and reduced the number of events and social activities we attended. However, despite ongoing debilitating medical conditions we continued throughout with the main hedgehog rescue and treatment work, which is what we do best and what we now concentrate on. Many of our wonderful donators remained with us during this period understanding the difficulties we faced, and the Charity is now based in Thornton, near Blackpool in North West Lancashire with a brand new purpose built, hedgehog hospital funded by their generous donations.
Throughout the years we have assisted other hedgehog rescue teams in their set up, wishing them all well as they embark on their own ventures. It's very hard work but rewarding we know. We have trained these teams in hedgehog care as they volunteered their time to our charity, provided them with ongoing advice and what equipment to buy to enable even more hedgehogs to be rescued and rehabilitated across the North West. We have worked alongside many of the UK's well known Wildlife Rescue Centres to try and bring about legislation, licencing and regulation of small wildlife rescues so that we can all operate fairly under a set of guidelines. To this day we are still pressing for this alongside the RSPCA and other associations.
"No longer is it acceptable when someone finds injured wildlife to be told “put it back where you found it, it's a wild animal, let nature take its course” when most of the injuries we see are caused by humans, directly or indirectly. Hedgehog numbers across the UK have fallen dramatically over the past few years. Those of us who have entered into this worthwhile endeavour all need to educate the public in whatever guise on the damage we are causing, to protect this vulnerable species and help it to survive for future generations".
Janis Dean – Casualty Care Manager,
Lancashire Hedgehog Care Trust.
Our Aims:
- To provide hospital facilities, together with a rescue, treatment and rehabilitation service to relieve the suffering and distress of sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs, with the aim to rehabilitate them once fit and healthy back into the wild.
- To educate the public and offer advice on the care, treatment, conservation and habitat of hedgehogs.
Dedicated to providing the best in care for all our 'little patients'
We love what we do and have many years of experience in Hedgehog rescue and rehabilitation.
There’s no challenge too big or too small, and we dedicate our utmost energy whilst keeping up with the latest in modern methods of treatments, to provide every rescued animal we take in with the very best in care to enable it to return to the wild, whatever the cost.