Sharon and Andy Longhurst have transformed their Burntisland home into a full scale hedgehog hospital complete with a maternity ward in the garden, an intensive care unit in the garage, and a fleet of volunteer hedgehog ambulances. The devoted couple has treated 567 hedgehogs over the past three years through their Burntisland Hedgehog Haven, often spending entire nights feeding orphaned hoglets and caring for injured animals. Sharon, who works as a crossing guard, hasn’t taken a vacation since starting the operation, admitting she simply cannot say no when a hedgehog needs help.
The pair holds a license to care for up to 40 animals at once, running seven ICU units and 40 cages with help from 18 trained volunteers who clean cages and check on the recovering creatures. They treat hedgehogs tangled in football nets, injured by gardening tools, covered in fly larvae, suffering from exhaustion or disease, and even burned by pesticides. The operation costs over $1,000 monthly to power incubators plus food and bedding, with an additional $4,400 annually in vet bills funded through running races, events, raffles and tombolas. An impressive 65 percent of their patients survive and return to the wild, giving hope to a species recently classified as near threatened due to habitat loss and declining populations across Europe.
