Shot hedgehog found suffering in Doncaster park has to be put to sleep

A wildlife lover has expressed their anger after a hedgehog found severly injured in a Doncaster park had to be put to sleep after being shot three times by cruel yobs.

The injured animal was found with airgun wounds in Sandall Park and despite attempts to help its recovery, sadly vets at Doncaster Pet Clinic in Edenthorpe had to take the decision to put the injured animal out of its misery.

The person who took care of the animal said: “She never thrived and had been limp and floppy all the time.

“Then I saw her walking from her food dish for the first time and she was dragging her back legs.

“I took her to the vets and asked them to X-ray her.

“She'd been shot three times with air gun pellets. One through her eye and one shattered her pelvis - hence her legs were paralysed.

“She must have been in agony. Livid doesn't cut it.”

“You could see in her eyes she was pained. Her eyes were sunken and her foot stuck up.

“I kept thinking there was something wrong with her leg, but then she'd tuck it in and it looked normal.”

Hedgehogs are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act: Wild Mammals {Protection} Act of 1996 - and the hunt is on to find those responsible for the attack.

A spokesperson for Doncaster Pet Clinic said: "The little hedgehog - named Carin by the rescuer - was brought into our Edenthorpe clinic.

“The carer said that Carin had been in the rescue centre for a few weeks and had not gained any weight.

“Carin seemed to be limp and floppy.

“Our vet (Bryony) and Nurse (Kirsty) gave the hedgehog some inhalant anaesthetic and examined her.

“ They noted an instability in the pelvis and immediately X-rayed her.

“The vet and nurse were shocked to see three pellets on the x-ray.

“One had hit her in the pelvis, one near the shoulder and the third beside her eye.

“This was such an awful thing to happen to a poor defenceless creature and unfortunately, she had to be euthanised."