Hedgehog charity in its 'eleventh hour'

HELPING over 1,500 hedgehogs every year, it’s hard to understate the impact of local charity ELM Wildlife. However, that impact is in jeopardy.

Devon’s largest wildlife rescue centre is currently operating from Seale Hayne, Newton Abbot.

ELM began in 2018 when Rick Parker started to take injured animals into his Torquay home with his wife Jacky and daughter Emily.

‘We were rescuing animals from our home since about 2010,’ said Rick. ‘People used to bring them to the door.’

‘At that time, the only thing we didn’t take ironically was hedgehogs because a different hedgehog charity, Prickly Ball Farm was there.’

It was 2018 when ELM’s operations began to scale up. The existing provision for hedgehog rescue, Prickly Ball Farm, shut down. Their equipment was donated to ELM Wildlife as they took over the reins of rescuing Devon’s hedgehogs.

Since then, ELM has rescued over 4,000 hedgehogs. Although it can’t take everything, the charity has even stretched to rescuing a bird of prey, a parrot and a family of foxes.

Emma Hickson has been volunteering at ELM for three years and a trustee of the charity for two. Her knowledge and passion for this iconic animal is staggering.

Emma said: ’It’s usually disturbed nests that cause problems. People find them in their garden, mum scarpers, she doesn’t come back and there’s a nest full of babies.

‘Sometimes, mum doesn’t come back because she’s been run over. People then find lots of tiny little babies squiggling around their garden, they don’t know what to do, so they ring us.

‘When the hedgehogs first come to us they go to the triage room, then they go straight into the incubators to warm them up so they can assess them and treat them. Currently have 180 hedgehogs in at the moment, if we go to absolute max capacity we can go up to 240.

‘We then try to rehabilitate them to where they were living, or another suitable spot if that one is too dangerous.’

However, at times, ELM Wildlife’s mission can feel like a losing battle. Already vanishingly rare, hedgehogs are increasingly being driven to extinction across much of Britain. According to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, three-quarters of Britain’s rural hedgehogs have been lost and have now been classed as vulnerable to extinction.

Emma said: ‘British wildlife is on its knees. We have a lot of hedgehogs coming through our doors in a state of starvation because there just isn’t enough natural food out there at the moment.

‘The last ten years they’ve migrated out of the countryside and into the urban areas to get human support for food.’

However, as ELM’s services become increasingly required, they face an immediate crisis that could see the whole project come to an end. Due to reasons beyond the charity’s control, ELM is having to leave its current home and move on. But with no suitable site on the horizon, the charity is facing imminent closure unless other premises are found.

‘We are at the eleventh and a half hour,’ said Emma, ‘this is the biggest crunch of the charity’s life. We’re just so desperate.’

To survive, the charity is pursuing two routes. It is first appealing to the public for a new home to build a new rescue centre. The acreage is flexible, and the ideal area is somewhere within a reasonable distance of the A38 between Chudleigh and Ivybridge, which will allow the Rescue to continue to cover its current area of Devon; but all options are being considered.

ELM has also launched a fundraiser. Having already raised over £11,000, the charity hopes to raise thousands more to help purchase and construct the new rehabilitation centre. But all this needs to happen soon.

Rick added: ‘There’s no one in this part of Devon that can do this, we’ve got the ability to do it, we’ve got the infrastructure, the people, the skills, and we love animals, and that’s where it’s gone. Unfortunately, if we cannot find a new site, we will not be able to go on.’

To donate to ELM, click here. If you have information on a site that may save ELM, contact them on Facebook.