How much money would it take to save all the hedgehogs and the birds? About .000000000000000000000001 percentage of the money now being spent to destroy the people and environment of Iraq. What a fucked up world. Lets show the criminals on Mayday that we do not except this new world order. The Greeks know how to protest-lets do the same in London.

They whole reason for the cull is to protect rare bird species that can't cope with the artificially introduced spiky little critters eating all their eggs.

What would you rather have? Thousands of hedge-hogs in an environment that they are slowly destroying or a preservation of the local rare inhabitants...?

Fair enough, maybe we should be trying to move all the hedge-hogs without killing them but that is a bloody difficult proposition - as you say, this is a trivial concern compared to all the shit that is going down at the moment and me-thinks resources could be better used elsewhere.

I have to say, I think we should kill the little blighters (humanely) and make sure strict controls on the introduction of species to closed and vulnerable eco-systems are enforced in the future.

This reminds me of that time a load of well intentioned ALF types "liberated" a shit-load of mink, only to find that the aggressive little fuckers completely wrecked the local alien eco-system. Cutting off ones nose despite ones face methinks?

All life is sacred. Move the hedgehogs to somewhere
better suited to them.

..no creature comes close when you're talking about destroying ecosystems, hey, we're on the way to making the whole planet uninhabitable.

the 2 differences between us and hedgehogs or minks is that we do far, far, greater damage and unlike them, we understand and know that we're doing it, which makes it even worse.

any humane solutions u can think of for us dannyboy? seen as u're so keen on humane culls do u wanna volunteer to go first?!

To cityboy:

"Thou shalt not kill

All life is sacred. Move the hedgehogs to somewhere
better suited to them."

I have never been a fan of dogma - does "thou shalt not kill" apply to worms? If so what about bacteria? Or Virii?

Is it just vertibrates? Or mammals? Where do you draw the line? Or are you a Jainist - do you filter all the water you drink to prevent killing microscopic water-creatures? Do you brush the path in front of you to avoid killing beetles?

As I said - I would LOVE it if the enviro-agencies had enough funds to do a capture / transfer of the hedge-hogs, but unfortunately our government squanders money on illegal warfare and does not give enough to the causes that matter.

I have spent a good portion of my time trying to change this and I have friends who work in environmental agencies trying to sort this shit out - but the government does not seem to be listening / caring about these issues. All the while, rare species are being DESTROYED by the hedge-hogs and the poor guys at the enviro-agency are left with two choices - cull them or LOSE A SPECIES!


"as much as i like humans
by hk 1:30pm Thu Apr 17 '03

..no creature comes close when you're talking about destroying ecosystems, hey, we're on the way to making the whole planet uninhabitable.

the 2 differences between us and hedgehogs or minks is that we do far, far, greater damage and unlike them, we understand and know that we're doing it, which makes it even worse.

any humane solutions u can think of for us dannyboy? seen as u're so keen on humane culls do u wanna volunteer to go first?!"

I agree that humans are destroying eco-systems, after all it was humans that introduced the hedge-hogs to the islands and "liberated" the mink.

Conversely, we have the ability to change our behaviour and as such we can repair / stop causing damage to the environment:

I do not drive a car.

I do not fly.

I do not buy goods or services from corporations that pollute (if I am aware of their miss-deeds).

I do not intend to have children (I will adopt if I feel the need to raise a child).

I buy my electricity from unit[e] who only use non-polluting generation.

I attempt to do everything I can to reduce my environmental footprint.

I also attempt to influence my friends into environmentally friendly conduct.

But if you want to kill me then go ahead... ;)

Seriouly though - sometimes you have to make hard decisions to preserve species! Don't have a go at the enviro-agency people for having to do a dirty job in the name of conservation. Turn your anger towards the government who does not provide enough funding for these guys to do their job in the ideal way!

I really don't want hedge-hogs to die but not half as much as I don't want entire species of birds to be wiped out because of the spiky little critters.

Magpies and jays have no enemies and do far more damage to song birds destroying whole nests full of eggs / chicks.
Funnily enough magpies and jays and indeed other members of the crow family remind me of the new breed of politician,
Directors and civil servants, thieving and scheming we need a an organised cull ! to stop the population of these parasites

Sorry - should have put more info up with the picture. There is a consortium of groups that have fund-raised to move the hedgehogs - alive - from the islands. But Scottish Natural Heritage is obstructing their efforts - and is trying to kill the hedgehogs they find. Everyone agrees that the hedgehogs have to be moved - the disagreement is whether to kill them or not. The most expensive part of the process is actually finding the animals - so after that bit is done, it seems a shame just to kill them when there are people willing to invest time and money into finding them a new home. While this may seem a small story - it actually reflects very clearly the general attitude towards our natural world .... if in doubt - kill it. SNH have put about a series of misleading statements suggesting that the moving of hedgehogs will result in their death - this has been dismissed by all of the leading experts ... if anyone can work out why SNH are so hell bent on killing hedgehogs, it would be great to hear!

wrap the little fuckers up in mud, cook em on a fire till the prickles fall off.... tasty meaty delight.