My neighbours hate hedgehogs!
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Hello, this is my first post here. I have a “wildlife” garden where I put out food for birds and any other visitors. These include badgers, grey squirrels and hedgehogs. The hedgehogs are living (we think) in a quiet area of the garden where there are a couple of ancient armchairs and planks of wood etc. These probably make a warm place to hibernate in the winter. Unfortunately, my neighbours on one side, really hate animals. They think that muntjac deer are “vermin”. They drained their pond when they saw a frog. They have plastic flowers in their flower borders with disco lights on them, and the rest of the garden is just all lawn, which they keep very short. They seem to have a phobia about all living creatures, including my dog, who is a springer spaniel. He does not bother the hedgehogs, he never tries to pick one up, he only barks at them to tell me that they are there and then I make him come in the house to allow them to escape safely. The gardens back onto a river and the bottom half of the gardens belong to the council really, but everyone has attached this land to their gardens. Unfortunately, these neighbours have placed coils of barbed wire all along the boundary of my garden. This could potentially kill my dog if he ran into their garden chasing a pheasant or something like that. They have claimed the barbed wire is there to keep out the muntjac deer. But my worry is that the wire could kill a deer in an inhumane way, even though deer are not a protected species. However, hedgehogs ARE a protected species, so, do you think I could write to my neighbour and say that they must remove the barbed wire because it could potentially kill a hedgehog and these are a protected species so my neighbours are in contravention of the Countryside Act 1981? Can I do this or should I involve a solicitor? Many thanks for your help.
THIS SOUNDS TERRIBLE. It sounds very distressing for you, its upset me .How can they live in the country with all the animals around they need to move . We get foxes, hedgehogs and not far away we have a river with Muntjac’s fantastic to see them. I’m sure the barbwire is illegal, could it easily be accessed by the public. I would maybe ask them if they will remove it nicely if not ring council definetly. Good luck let us know what joy you get .
I would contact the council and ask for advice. It’s not illegal to use barbed wire but they have a duty of care with it.
If the council deem what they have done as safe then your best bet would be to install your own fence to stop your dog running into their garden.
The best bet would be to get the council to come and look, but try not to get too emotive when calling themJust as an aside here, badgers are a hedgehogs natural predator and you may find they kill your hogs. I would not be encouraging them
TERRIBLE! My neighbours to one side have paved over their garden, those behind have blocked fences, security bright lights on/off have been installed in several houses recently.
But, nothing on the scale of which are enduring!
Would certainly write to/ email /phone the council with your concerns. Think I would be reluctant to go to the law at this stage. Expensive and hopefully you will find a way forward without mitigation. Maybe engage with other neighbours to steam roll over these totally ignorant people?
Plastic flowers!!! ??? See the full lyrics of Joni Mtchell’ s ”Big Yellow Taxi’
“I don’t care about spots on my apples, Leave me the birds and the bees”
Good luck, your garden sounds wonderful
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