A HOSPITAL for sick hedgehogs is under threat of closure – because the price of cat food has doubled.
The rising price of the spiky animals’ favourite food could cause the closure of the health centre.
The Wormit Hedgehog Care Centre, near Dundee, has been run by retired engineer Sandy Boyd for the past 15 years, and the 70 year-old has nursed thousands of sickly animals back to health.
Last year alone the hospital nursed over 300 animals back to full fitness.
But because the centre relies on public donations, topped up by Mr Boyd’s own income, the cost of running the centre is becoming too financially crippling to operate.
Over the years, the hospital has welcomed injured hedgehogs from Helensburgh to Aberdeen – and has even received advice calls from as far afield as Devon and the Orkneys.
And the sprightly 70 year-old said he even took a call just before Christmas from an ex-pat animal lover in Portugal who had found an injured hedgehog by the roadside.
Mr Boyd said: “If the food prices keep rising, along with our escalating heating and veterinary medicine bills, then it will either mean the closure, or at the very least a drastic cutback of numbers admitted for care.
“There is only so much that we can do on our pension and we would like to see someone else starting to care for large number of hedgehogs.”
Sandy also visits schools and nurseries to introduce the animals to children and receives tins of food in return.
The hedgehog hospital’s problems have been compounded by Sandy being unable to make the school visits due to hospital appointments.
And the animal lover now admits it is time for him to slow down, and to find a suitable replacement to start looking after the vast amount of injured hedgehogs he takes in each year.
