A CHARITY is pleading for Islanders to “check before they chop” after a hedgehog with injuries thought to be from a garden strimmer had to be put down.
The Jersey Hedgehog Preservation Group were alerted to a “poor little hedgehog” that had been found “covered in blood” at the bottom of Old St John’s Road.
Initially, those who had found it thought it had been run over, so the charity took it to New Era vets where it was sedated, explained Dru Burdon from the charity.
There, she said, it was discovered that it had “a big slash across its back end” and “both hind legs had been chopped off”.
She added: “There were shortened spines on its head, so it looked like a strimmer injury or similar to me.”
Ms Burdon said that the hedgehog had to be put to sleep at once by the vets “as a two-legged hedgehog cannot survive”.
Urging Islanders to be more careful, she added: “Please check anywhere you’re going to cut before you start to try and avoid accidents like this.
“We see so many hedgehogs that are beyond help and it is so distressing.
“Hedgehog numbers are falling as it is, without avoidable injuries like these.”
