paul stockham

Halloween artificial cobweb material: It may be a bit of fake fun for you, but it's a very real and terrifying death for them. And it's not only birds. Last year I had my first call of the season of a hedgehog trapped in this horrific fake 'cobweb', made especially for gullible halloweeners to spread over their greenery, trapping all unsuspecting birds, insects and mammals, including hedgehogs. The fine synthetic fibers are difficult for animals to see and can quickly wrap around their legs, spines, and neck, leading to severe injuries. When a hedgehog struggles to free herself the web tightens, cutting off circulation and causing deep wounds. These constriction injuries often lead to permanent damage or death. Unfortunately the call was from Manchester, so all I could do was talk them through getting the poor creature to a rescue. Clearly she had been trapped there for at least one night, and her struggles had pulled the strong nylon strands so tightly that one of her toes had been amputated. Can you imagine the pain and the sheer terror? And then seeing dawn approach, while hanging there, tightly bound and helpless. Aside from being stressed, dehydrated, starving and exhausted to the point of near death, she also had horrific bite/peck wounds to her face, where she had been held there, helpless, unable to curl and defend herself, while a predator tried to eat her alive. If you have used this deadly cruel trap to 'decorate' your garden, please take it down now. Please don't be conned by the greedy makers and sellers of this rubbish into hurting defenceless animals.

What a load of nonsense!😂 Quite inventive! Are you financed by fox hunters or farmers, by any chance? Please stop spreading this misinformation. It does no one any good and just encourages hedgehog lovers to hate and be afraid of badgers. Badgers and hedgehogs have lived peaceably together side by side for 125,000 years. The badgers didn't suddenly decide to go on a hedgehog murdering spree, you know.🙄 They are incredibly tolerant of each other. Their diets are similar so they compete for food, but without aggression. This iniquitous rumour about badgers is spread by the deviants who enjoy torturing and killing animals, hoping to get hedgehog lovers to validate their depravity. Badgers are NOT hunters, you don't need a degree in zoology to know that, you only have to look at their body shape, their eye position, and sweet lumbering gait.😁 They are foragers, and 80% of their diet is earthworms. Of course any animal dying of starvation will act unnaturally, if that's the only way to survive. Humans have been know to eat each other, in extremis. So a starving badger may attempt predating a hedgehog, or any other animal, if it's risk that or death. That doesn't mean anything. Hedgehogs are no more part of badger's natural diet as mud is to a starving third world child. And as for the 'hollowed-out skins' - dear me, this is so ignorant. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of badger dentition knows this is impossible, utter nonsense. These empty skins are sadly all what's left of dead hedgehog, whose cause of death is usually parasite invasion or starvation, after birds - corvids mainly - have finished scavenging the corpse. See all those little dimples? They are peck marks. And badgers don't have beaks.😊

Please don't make tonight the night you'll regret for the rest of your life. Unlike most mammals, hedgehogs don't have the Fight or Flight Response to danger. That means that no matter how frightened they are, they don't bite, and they don't run away. Their response to danger is to curl up into a protective ball, and wait until the threat passes. That's why so many get run over by approaching cars. That's why so many are maimed and killed by approaching strimmers. And that's why so many get burned alive in bonfires. ❌Poking a stick under the bonfire pile will just make the hedgehog inside curl into a ball. Even if you touch her and hurt her, she won't move or make a sound. ❌Lighting it from one side will just make the hedgehog curl even tighter. As the smoke fills her lungs and her coat begins to singe, she will freeze in place and wait for the danger to pass. ❌Shining a light under the bonfire will just make the hedgehog ball even tighter. She'll stay silent and close her eyes so they don't reflect light and give her presence away. The ONLY way to make a bonfire safe is to build it the same day you light it. So if it's already built, you need to move today, before lighting it tonight. Please stay safe, and make sure it's only the rockets that scream.