Inside this local 'hogspital' the admission of injured hedgehogs just keep coming.
Hutches house the sick and injured as volunteers do their best to nurse them back to health. But in recent weeks Hope for Hedgehogs, in Woodside, Ryton, has seen a spike in the number of hedgehogs in desperate need of their care.
Amputated limbs, broken bones and even one hedgehog with half its face torn away are just some of the injuries sustained by the charity's recent admissions. And sadly some are too injured to be treated.
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But the charity's volunteers explain that there's a simple way that their injuries can be avoided and they're pleading with the public to help. It comes after a sharp rise in the number of hedgehog injuries being caused by strimmers and garden equipment as the warmer weather brings people outdoors.
Sandra Lowe, who started Hope for Hedgehogs, said: "This doesn't need to happen, it's so avoidable. Hedgehogs are vulnerable to extinction, they're on the red endangered list, they're very shy, gentle, quiet animals who just want to be left alone. But they're having to come in, which disrupts them, because of injuries."
She added: "Please be careful with strimmers and any kind of garden equipment. We have had so many injuries in recently from hedgehogs that they've sustained in the garden."
Since people have started doing their garden, Sandra estimates that 30% of the hedgehogs being admitted have severe injuries. Among those currently being treated is 'David Essex', a hedgehog who sustained a "horrific" strimmer injury which resulted in three abscesses, which the vet had to drain this week.
Each of the hedgehogs recovering at Hope for Hedgehogs 'hogspital' have been given celebrity names, with other poorly hedgehog patients include: Sam Fender, Rod Stewart, Audrey Hepburn and Michael Caine.
Tracy Weston, who also volunteers at Hope for Hedgehogs, said recently one hedgehog was even admitted with half its face ripped away.
She said: "It's breaking our hearts and we're getting that many in that aren't even surviving 24 hours. A lady brought one in that had a strimmer injury and literally the hedgehog had half of her face cut off. I don't know how she was alive but by the time we got her to the vets she had died in the car. We need help."
The volunteers explain that as well as strimmer injuries, they're seeing a lot of admissions of hedgehogs which have been injured or poisoned by rat and mice traps.
Tracy added: "People are still using glue traps - which is essentially a flat bit of glue - to stop mice and rats. And this little hedgehog had got stuck and was so keen to get himself off the trap that he had ripped three of the pads off his feet and three toes had been pulled off as well.
"The level of upset for our volunteers is beyond and we need it to stop. We need people to have an awareness."
At the start of this week Hope for Hedgehogs had 33 hedgehogs in their care. And the number continues to rise, with a further eight being admitted on Thursday.
Sandra said: "If there's a pile of leaves really be careful, don't just lunge into it and start sweeping it up. Just be cautious. Look under hedges and things, just think before switching machines on.
"We can avoid this. It's not only horrible for the poor hedgehogs who've got to suffer this pain and discomfort - and obviously we can't save them all, some of them have to be put to sleep - It's horrible for all of the volunteers who work here. We really, really do get upset when we these injuries.
"If you hear a hedgehog cry with pain, which is very rare, you never forget that sound, it's horrendous."
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