Lovely item from last year.
Reported on the BBC News 31st October, 2012
Hedgehog trapped in crisp packet in Weston-super-Mare
A baby hedgehog which found itself stuck in a crisp packet has been released after a three-and-a-half hour rescue involving six people.
The animal became trapped after it crawled into the empty wrapper in a railed off area near steps in Weston-super-Mare.
A shopkeeper heard rustling and saw the hedgehog – now named Crispian – stick his nose out.
Workers had to cut through the railings and help rescuers reach the hedgehog.
Jules Bishop, from Prickles Hedgehog Rescue, said Crispian crawled into the area as he was attracted to the warmth of the packet and the smell.
“He’s thriving now and will be here all winter as he’s so tiny,” she said.
“I want to thank all the people involved because obviously without their commitment and dedication this little hog would have had no way to survive.
“He was very, very cold and dehydrated when I emptied him out of the crisp packet.”
Do drop in on the website of Prickles Hedgehog Rescue, from where this gorgeous picture was found.


When I was a kid I didn’t throw away* any crisp packets or drinks bottles (glass in them days) because I knew that they could serve as fatal traps for all sorts of wildlife. Looking around at the world today and judging by the rubbish strewn around, it seems that this message hasn’t been absorbed by most folk.
* Remind me exactly where ‘away’ is, again?
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Well as more and more are finding out, there’s no such concept of ‘away’. It’s all coming back with a vengeance. Interesting to consider that dogs, indeed all animals, don’t throw stuff away.
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That maybe true, Paul, but dogs do bury stuff; like we will have to do with carbon dioxide and (unless we change our policy nuclear power and build fast breeder reactors) huge amounts of long-lived, highly-radioactive, nuclear waste.
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Sadly, “away” tends to end up being the mid-Pacific islands of Hawaii:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
Also very sad was the amount of rubbish thrown on the side of the trails in the Himalayas – although it was never clear to me whether it was the tourists or the poor over-worked native Sherpas who were dropping it.
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I can well remember when attempting my solo trans-Atlantic sail back in the early 90’s seeing huge volumes of floating garbage hundreds of miles west of Gibraltar.
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I remember you telling me about a solo voyage in the Mediterranean but solo across the Atlantic…? I can’t believe I have forgotten you telling me about that… However, either way, it must have been the “Great Atlantic Garbage Patch” that you saw back then!
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When I lived on Songbird of Kent in Cyprus, I kept BS’ing about how I was preparing for a solo crossing. Eventually, after four years I ran out of excuses and after working westwards along the Mediterranean departed Gibraltar for the Azores.
About 200 miles East of the Azores got smacked by a storm (I had left it a little too late to do the crossing), lost my nerve and after finding a crew mate in the Azores, turned right for Plymouth!
The ’18 days’ that was referred to in this earlier post was that experience – not all of it grim by a long shot.
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I stand corrected, good sir. Thank you for being, as ever, so gentlemanly in your use of language.
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I have been known to utter non-gentlemanly words from time to time! 😉
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On QI the other night Stephen Fry mentioned the North Atlantic gyre (apparently the size of Texas)… but he made no mention of the other four gyres. A missed opportunity, I felt.
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Might try and watch that, Mr. P.
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Wonderful rescue story.
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Thanks SP.
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Loved reading this at the time Paul and enjoyed even more second time around 🙂
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Thanks SD!
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