Janet Peto founded Hedgehog Welfare in July 1993, who is now based near Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Janet started caring for hedgehogs when she found two small hedgehogs – she named Softy and Tiny – in her garden in Surrey on Saturday 27th November 1982. She asked Les Stocker, the founder of St Tiggywinkles Hospital for wild animals for help to look after them as Les’ passion was for hedgehogs.
The main aims of Hedgehog Welfare are:
We take in hedgehogs from as far as Great Ponton which is just south of Grantham, to Retford in the North, as far west as Bingham and as far east as Ancaster.
We are sorry but we cannot collect as we do not have the time or the volunteers.
Since then, Janet has hardly been without at least one or two hedgehogs. With the help and support of some wonderful vets, she has gained a wealth of knowledge on these spiny mammals. She has carried out research, lectured in Italy, Sweden, Germany and of course the UK.
We have several carers; some are experienced, and others are still learning. We have carers who are happy to just “fatten up” the hedgehog for us. However, all are important roles to ensure we help as many hedgehogs as possible.
Our “triage nurse” is Sally who checks out the hedgehog and what treatment is needed in discussion with our vet. According to the hogs’ medical needs, after at least a couple of days the hedgehogs are sent out to one of our wonderful carers.
We set a high standard of caring, always remembering that the hedgehog lives to different rules than domestic pets. Importantly, our aim is to return them to the wild and care for them accordingly. We do not talk too or cuddle our hedgehogs in care as they are wild animals and this will cause them stress.
However, we do talk a lot about our hedgehogs. Hedgehog Welfare gives talks to every age group from 3 years to 103 within our area. It is one of our aims to educate; we never make a charge, but we are lucky and often receive a donation for the talks.
