In 2021 Donna Vegana started a petition to help hedgehogs. https://chng.it/wCrXM8nnsB
She declared victory when Cadent Gas said they were looking at different designs of safety barriers & working closely with the British Hedgehog Preservation Society & the Wildlife Trusts. It appears nothing has changed. After seeing a post on social media about gas excavations & hedgehogs in Norwich I contacted Cadent in October 2023. They did not respond.
Yesterday (17/11/2023) the Eastern Daily Press ran this story ‘Norwich woman's plea to Cadent over hedgehog worksite deaths’. Hedgehogs trapped in unmonitored excavations left to die a horrible death ! Vicki Ellen tried to her best to get the utility company to listen but you can guess the rest.
https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/23929961.norwich-womans-plea-cadent-hedgehog-worksite-deaths/
How many hedgehogs must die before utility companies & others accept their responsibilities & protect wildlife ? Yet another example of talking the talk but not walking the walk. Please let Cadent know how you feel about hedgehogs being killed by their wildlife unfriendly work practices https://cadentgas.com/contact-us
What do you suppose would happen if hedgehogs were added to Schedule 5 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 ? Cadent and others would then be held accountable for the preventable deaths of hedgehogs and work practices would have to change.
I’ve been waiting 31 days now for a government response to my other hedgehog petition petition.parliament.uk/petitions/643081 Who knows when we might find out what excuses the government conjures up this time but in the meantime let’s keep signing & sharing. We need to reach 100,000 signatures by 29 February 2024 for a parliamentary debate but it is proving to be a difficult battle for signatures as that petition stands at less than 15,000 signatures. I have failed to get support from wildlife conservation organisations but that is on them.
Thank you all for your ongoing support. We’ll keep fighting.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/643081
Maggie