I could not get any news about the poor hog. He had been left with the out of hours vets and the ‘day’ vets didn’t have a record of it. I suspect that probably means the little chap is no more. They were going to try to find out for me, but it may not be until tomorrow. I think he probably was one of the boys. I didn’t check. The poor thing was so badly injured, I didn’t want to do anything which could have potentially made his suffering worse. Not very scientific, I know, but the girls, which I know round here, have darker faces and this chap had a pale face.
When I am able to think past the sadness and the wanting to save the life of a poor innocent animal, (which whilst it was a wild animal, had a human inflicted injury) it is difficult to see how the poor chap could have been released back into the wild, even if he had survived. Given the injury, it seems unlikely that the important spines above the head and on the neck would have ever grown back and without them, life in the wild would have been a very dangerous place for him. Realistically it would not be fair to release a hog without those spines back into the wild and what is life for a wild hedgehog if he cannot be wild. The sad fact is, that once he received that level of injury, his life was doomed.
I cannot imagine ever forgetting the image of those bright little eyes looking at me from what had once been a beautiful hedgehog. So sorry, little hedgehog. This human says sorry for what humans have done to you – and others like you.
