HEDGEHOGS in the Outer Hebrides are to be shot by conservationists this autumn as a bizarre consequence of the law banning foxhunting.

The small mammals, about 9in (23cm) long, have been culled as a pest by lethal injection on North Uist and Benbecula for the past three years after being caught by hand at night with spotlamps.

Now numbers are so low in certain areas that experts believe that dogs will have to be used for the first time to flush out survivors from their well-hidden nests. The use of dogs means that Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the Scottish Executive’s environmental agency that runs the £186,000 annual cull, has no alternative but to use shotguns to kill the hedgehogs, because of a law introduced in 2002 to protect wild mammals.

Experts at SNH approached Scottish Executive ministers this summer to find a way to bypass the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, which banned hunting with dogs. But ministers insisted that the law, which states that dogs can be used only to flush out wild animals to waiting guns or birds of prey, must be followed. There is no provision for use of lethal injection.

Yesterday, Uist Hedgehog Rescue, which “evacuates” hedgehogs to the mainland every spring to frustrate the annual cull, said that SNH had gone from the “bizarre to the ridiculous”. Ross Minnett, a spokesman for the animal campaign group, said: “Is this really how the public expects their taxes to be used? SNH exists to protect Scotland’s natural heritage, not to kill it.”

“This is being paid for using hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money, yet killing hedgehogs flies in the face of expert advice and public opinion.”

The original eradication project began in 2003 in an attempt to stop the dramatic decline of the islands’ important colonies of nesting waders, such as dunlin, lapwing and ringed plovers. Populations had more than halved in ten years because hedgehogs eat their eggs.

Hedgehogs were introduced to the islands in 1974 by a gardener with a slug problem. Latest estimates place the current population at about 4,000. Since the cull began 511 hedgehogs have been caught and killed by SNH. This year it paid out £4,100 in bounties at £20 a hedgehog to islanders who handed creatures over to them.

Sarah Roe, of Scottish Natural Heritage, said: “The law means that if you hunt with dogs you have to kill with a shotgun or a bird of prey. Because there are fewer hedgehogs about it is more difficult for our workers to find them using spotlamps.

“We need the dogs with their acute sense of smell to locate them. This is the only way and we have the approval of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.”

“We hope that by using them (the dogs), we will be able to locate the last remaining hedgehogs and eradicate them. This is the final push there.”

The autumn cull will run from September 26 to October 28. Next spring SNH will focus efforts on Benbecula before moving on to South Uist where the majority of hedgehogs are.

Yesterday, the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said that under the law, hedgehogs had to be shot if dogs were used to flush them out, but it would still recommend their human destruction by lethal injection.

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