Hornbeam Wood Hedgehog Sanctuary

We are a small family run Charity that looks after British Wild Hedgehogs founded in April 2015. Mother and son are involved on a daily basis and the Charity rehabilitates wild hedgehogs and orphaned baby hoglets that are sick, injured, or underweight. Since 2015 we have rescued, rehabilitated, and released close to 2000 injured or orphaned hedgehogs. Hornbeam Wood Hedgehog Sanctuary is located on the same lands that made up Grahame Dangerfield’s Animal Sanctuary and still uses many of the original pens and cages. The sanctuary is based in Harpenden/Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire with 10 Acres of woodland and open fields home to all kinds of local wildlife including Barn Owls, Bats, Deer, Foxes, Hedgehogs, Rabbits and more.

Donations are greatly appreciated and help us a huge amount. We use 100% of donations to help the hedgehogs . We currently have a peak of around 80 hedgehogs at any one time and an average of between 30-50 in rehabilitation. Hedgehogs in rehabilitation are with us anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months but usually at least 1-2 months. One hedgehog can easily eat close to an entire can of dog food, but it’s normally just over half a can, or a large bowl of hedgehog food. It’s not unusual to go through at least 30-40 cans of food a day. This does not include the more expensive foods such as the critical care mousse and hoglet powdered food. There are also lot of ongoing costs involved in rescuing the hedgehogs but it costs about £50 a month just to feed and shelter a hedgehog in rehabilitation. There are also hedgehog consumable costs (such as medical treatments, gloves, various disinfectants, wound sprays, flea, mite, and tick sprays, milton tablets, etc..) and general maintenance and repairs of hedgehog buildings, hutches, and pens. Some of the larger costs for the Charity are insurance and electricity along with the on-going running costs of the rescue vehicle used to pickup and drop off hedgehogs rescued, along with being released back into the wild. The cost of fuel is more than £50 a week. On top of this are expensive items such as incubators. These costs alone amount to several thousand pounds a year.

The Wild British Hedgehog has been included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List for British Mammals. Their population has decreased by about 50% in urban areas and 70% in rural areas since the year 2000. It is estimated that 100k -350k hedgehogs are killed each year on the roads.

Registered Charity No. 1190048