SerpApi.Org
Two teenagers and two men have been arrested after a hedgehog was painted blue and yellow.
The female hedgehog was found by a woman in her back garden in Yeadon, Leeds. It appeared to have been painted in two of the colours of Leeds United FC or as the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog.
The paint meant the hedgehog was unable to curl up into a ball, with the fumes meaning the animal suffered breathing problems.
West Yorkshire Police said two men, aged 44 and 21, and two teenage boys, aged 17 and 15, had been detained on suspicion of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and freed on bail while inquiries continued.
A police said: “Someone in the LS19 area of Leeds has sprayed a hedgehog blue. This has caused unnecessary suffering to the animal.”
Staff at Prickly Pigs Hedgehog Rescue, based in Otley, Leeds, scrubbed the thick oil-based paint from each of the hedgehog’s individual spines and administered pain relief.
Shelter owner Diane Cook, 51, said: “It’s an unbelievably stupid thing to do. We know it was done deliberately, and she has not just brushed against wet paint or fallen in some paint, because she’s completely covered except for the front of her face, tummy and legs.
“This is absolutely disgusting behaviour to happen to any animal, never mind a creature that in our country is on the red list and classed as vulnerable to extinction.”
She said the animal’s restricted movement meant it had no way of defending itself from predators and could easily have been killed, or could have starved to death.
Ms Cook, who runs the shelter from her converted garage, said that the hedgehog would be microchipped and released into the garden where it was found once it had made a full recovery.
Hedgehogs are in decline in Britain, and are now listed as vulnerable on the Mammal Society’s red list.
According to the most recent State of Britain’s Hedgehogs report, numbers have fallen by up to 30 per cent in urban areas and 50 per cent in rural areas since the turn of the century.
