About Help a Hedgehog Hospital

Help a Hedgehog Hospital is registered charity no 1156376, founded by former Vet Nurse Annie Parfitt in 2008. The Trustees are all volunteers who provide administration, fundraising, hedgehog care, talks to the public, press liaison and attend local events to promote our work. As well as the original hospital in Brimscombe, we have satellite hospitals in King's Stanley, Tetbury and Swellshill.

We are here to raise awareness of the problems faced by hedgehogs, educate and inform the public about their needs and welfare and provide specialist veterinary care and rehabilitation in conjunction with our local veterinary practice. Our carers have received training on the care and rehabilitation of Hedgehogs via a British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) approved course, delivered by Vale Wildlife Hospital near Tewkesbury, Glos.

Meet the Trustees

The Trustees have collective responsibility for the running of the charity and policy decisions.

Annie Parfitt - Founder, Managing Trustee and primary carer. Annie also runs our Facebook page and deals with enquiries via the website.
Mary Hinton - Chairperson and Carer at 'Hogwards' in Tetbury, talks and fundraising.
Julien Crowther - Secretary, publicity, merchandise, fundraising events, Twitter.
John Crowther
Maureen Reader - Treasurer, fundraiser, records and data.
Steve Parfitt - Carer, fundraising.
Ken Granger - Carer, fundraising.

What do we do?

Hedgehogs are brought to us by members of the public, local veterinary practices with whom we have fostered good relations, and by other welfare organisations. Our aim is always to rehabilitate hedgehogs and release back to their natural environment.

Using Google mapping, we plot the distribution of hedgehogs in Gloucestershire to identify those areas where they are thriving, those where they are scarce and areas where hedgehogs have disappeared entirely. This assists us in making decisions about areas suitable for reintroduction and possible release sites for hedgehogs that cannot be returned to the place where they were found. However, in the majority of cases all hedgehogs will be returned to the place where they were found when they are well enough to be released. We are always interested to hear of sightings of hedgehogs, dead or alive, in our local area, to assist in this research.

Hedgehogs are wild animals and easily stressed and as such, they are not pets and should always be returned to the wild. We operate a policy of euthanasia on welfare grounds under veterinary advice when necessary and we work within the relevant UK veterinary and welfare legislation. Animal welfare is our prime concern at all times.

Carers and Volunteers

Please contact us if you would like to get involved as a volunteer. Our main need is for people to help man the stall at events for an hour or two on occasional weekends or to run their own fundraising events on our behalf such as sponsored walks, coffee mornings, bring and buy sales and to make cakes or crafts for sale etc.

There are currently no vacancies for carers and a waiting list for those who are interested but if you would like to be considered in the future, please contact us and we will be happy to consider you should a vacancy arise.

EMERGENCIES

Please contact us as quickly as possible if you need help with a sick, orphan or injured hedgehog. Time is an important factor in saving lives.

Please note: we are only able to deal with emergency calls in Gloucestershire.

Phone calls for emergencies only, evenings and weekends:
07867 974 525

Please use this email for enquiries:

Email: enquiries@helpahedgehog.org

We are also unable to deal with enquiries regarding pet African Pygmy Hedgehogs as these are an entirely different species to the European hedgehog. We can put you in contact with a local rescue centre that deals with Pygmy Hogs but if you need urgent advice, please contact your vet.