Hedgehogs are wonderful pets, and because there is really no reason for them to be illegal, I would like the threat of the Game Commission raiding houses and euthanizing "illegal" hedgehogs to be gone completely.

"They are not rodents, but insectivores that, in addition to insects, will eat tiny mammals or small snakes, says Ron Fricke, vice president of education at the Philadelphia Zoo. Though the hedgehog is native to England, continental Europe, Africa and Asia, the hedgehog found in the U.S. tends to be the African pygmy, or white-bellied, hedgehog, from central Africa. American owners have found the hedgehogs to be litter-trainable and quiet, with distinct personalities; these things, along with their small size, make them appealing and easy to have in the home, as far as exotic animals go.

The fuss is that African pygmy hedgehogs are legal in all but five states; Pennsylvania is in the minority. Most of the other states in which the animals are illegal, such as Arizona and Hawaii, possess warm climates within which African pygmy hedgehogs, if released into the wild, might very well thrive, disrupting native wildlife populations. PGC uses that argument; according to PGC, it’s generally illegal to own hedgehogs here because allowing non-indigenous or non-domestic animals into the state potentially endangers Pennsylvania wildlife by competing with it for habitat and maybe even gobbling it up.

Fricke and the hedgehog owners City Paper spoke to, however, agree that these animals would not under normal circumstances survive an East Coast winter, so the chances of the white-bellied hedgehog doing damage are slim." (http://archives.citypaper.net/articles/030702/cs.cover.shtml)

It seems that the PGC did not do thorough research on these animals. Would you allow other laws to be passed and enforced without proper research being done?