You are absolutely right, Granny Edie and Kb70, in all but a very few circumstances, where it is inapproptiate, the hogs should be returned to where they came from.
http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/BHPS-Guidance-For-relasing-Rehabilitated-Hedgehogs.pdf
The people who are taking care of the hoglet from your garden, Granny Edie, are doing a great job looking after the hoglets, but they are wrong not to allow the hoglets to be released back where they came from. Even a hoglet will have learnt it’s own home range and will do much better if that is where it’s returned. I suggest that you give them a copy of the above mentioned document.
They could be doing more harm than good releasing them from a central site. If there are other hogs in the area, it could putting them at risk, not only because of the sudden increase in population and the consequent impact on food resources, but also they may introduce infections to which the existing hogs do not have any resistance. Likewise the newly released hogs may not have resistance to any infections to which the local population are immune. If there are no hogs in the area, there is a reason for that, possibly that the habitat is not suitable.
In addition, if hogs are not returned to their home range, they are likely to be completely disoriented. A hog returned to it’s home range will remember it.
It should not be beyond the wit of even the busiest of hog rehabilitators to keep a record of where hogs have come from. I would suggest that anyone who takes a hog to a rehabilitator, not only makes sure that they have the appropriate information available (i.e. the above mentioned leaflet), but that they leave their name and address and preferably a donation so that the hog can be easily returned to where it came from.
It seems tragic that people are spending so much time helping the hogs and then actually potentially harming, not only those, but other hogs, by releasing them other than where they came from.
The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), British Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (BWRC), The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), Vale Wildlife Hospital (VWH) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) ….. together with Dr Nigel Reeve and Dr Pat Morris have gone to the trouble of putting together the above mentioned leaflet. Anyone who cares about hedgehogs please copy this and pass it on to anyone who is caring for/rehabilitating hedgehogs. Too many hogs are being put at risk for lack of this information.
