The rat trap that nearly killed a hedgehog near Porthleven

You put a rat trap out because you have rats, not because you want to hurt anything else that comes along after dark. But a trap has no idea what species walks into it, and a hedgehog found near Porthleven shows exactly how much damage that mistake can do.

📷Credit: Porthleven Harbour Hedgie Rescue

A hedgehog called Pineapple

A hedgehog now known as Pineapple was brought into the care of Porthleven Harbour Hedgie Rescue after being found caught in a “humane” rat trap. Nobody knows how long she had been stuck there. Hedgehogs forage at night, simply going about their lives, with no idea what the traps humans leave out for rats can do to them.

Pineapple would likely have died had she simply been released, but her finder got in touch with the rescue instead. She then had to be carefully cut free from the trap, work credited to a helper known as Mr Hog, without whom she would have stayed trapped.

📷Credit: Porthleven Harbour Hedgie Rescue

The injuries hidden under her spines

Pineapple arrived hypothermic, dehydrated and starving. Her legs and feet were incredibly swollen, painful and blood-stained, she had wounds on her nose, and flystrike on her abdomen. She had also been sitting in her own urine and faeces the whole time she was trapped.

📷Credit: Porthleven Harbour Hedgie Rescue

Warming her up and fighting to save her

The rescue gave her warm medicated baths, removed the flystrike, and slowly warmed and rehydrated her. She is now on antibiotics and pain relief, resting in soft fleece bedding while she recovers.

📷Credit: Porthleven Harbour Hedgie Rescue

Not every trapped hedgehog is this lucky

Pineapple’s case isn’t the only one the rescue has dealt with recently. Another hedgehog was caught in a trap described as inhumane, one that had taken its leg off completely. That hedgehog was sent straight to a vet and put to sleep.

📷Credit: Porthleven Harbour Hedgie Rescue

Why rat traps are a hidden danger to wildlife

If you set a trap for rats or mice, it cannot tell what walks into it. Hedgehogs come out to forage exactly when many traps are set, and they have no way of knowing what the wire and mesh in front of them means. Traps don’t know what species will walk into them, and the consequences for our wildlife can be devastating. Our wildlife is already facing so many dangers, and protecting the animals that cannot protect themselves starts with how the traps we set are used, and what happens when they catch something they shouldn’t.

📷Credit: Porthleven Harbour Hedgie Rescue

What to do if you find a trapped wild animal

If you ever find a wild animal caught in a trap, contact a rescue or take it straight to a vet. Vets do not charge members of the public for bringing in a wild animal.

Never simply release a trapped animal. It may look fine to the untrained eye, but there could be serious injuries or complications you cannot see, and getting it into the right care can quite literally save its life.

Pineapple is now resting under care while she recovers, her injuries a reminder of what a trap meant for something else entirely can do to an animal that never had a chance to understand it.

📷Credit: Porthleven Harbour Hedgie Rescue