Hedgehogs now legal in Vermont

[Kalandra]

A week or two ago there was an announcement on one of the hedgehog lists that hedgehogs are now legal in Vermont.

I thought this was absolutely wonderful news and feel that it should be shared. Below is a link to the VT fish and wildlife website that lists the unrestricted animals. You'll see at the bottom of the mammals section African Hedgehogs now appear.

http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/li...ion/species/Unrestricted_Wild_Animal_List.pdf

 

[tunes]

Yay for hedgie people! Now if PA would follow suite, there would be lots of happy campers there as well.

 

[hedgiespirit]

Yes, PA would be fantastic... then I wouldn't have to live in Delaware while commuting to school in PA next year. Though I highly doubt they will suddenly come to their senses and start being reasonable in time to help me.

 

[Megan]

Would be great if PA would smarten up. You can own lions, bears, tigers, crocs, and venmous snakes(walk into a reptile petstore flash an id that you are over 18 and you now own a king cobra...) here, oh and I forgot- HIPPOS(Provided you have a large enough pool, and about an acre of land fenced...).. but god forbid if you own a hedgehog!

 

[CJR]

You can own hedgehogs in PA if they were born in PA and from parents that lived in PA. The law is really weird, when it was passed all hedgehogs currently in PA were still legal but no more could be imported in. The lines that still exist are legal.

Although, personally... if you can hide it, who gives a care?

 

[Megan]

Ash,

That is not true. When PA made hedgehogs illegal back in 2001, there was an all out man hunt on hedgehogs. It was deemed that hedgehogs are not a native species, therefore they had to be imported into the state, therefore that would mean any hedgehog in the state was deemed illegal at the time. That would also mean that all offspring they produced was also illegal.

In short hedgehogs are illegal, even the ones who were bred in the state of PA.

If what you said was true those of use who owned hedgehogs at that time would not have had to fear for the life of our hogs. Many had to relocate outside the state of PA. Those that were founded were charged heavy fines, their hedgehogs were taken and put down. Very little found hedgehogs made it out of the state a live. If we decided to keep our hogs there was no mention that we had them, and any mention was deleted because the PA game commission was rumored to be monitoring the forums to find out who still had hedgehogs.

 

[Nancy]

Megan is right. When they were deemed illegal, any hedgehog in the state had to get out fast or they were confiscated and euthanized. My first breeding quality female was the daughter of two of the hedgehogs from a breeder in PA who had to quickly get them all out of state. Some of them came to Canada.

 

[CJR]

... Wow. I had no idea it was that serious. Thank you for correcting me, both of you. My friend who works at the pet store told me that, so... yeah.

 

[Megan]

Please correct your friend at the petstore. S/he can seriously get people in trouble with that information, and get some hogs killed. Trust me as I was someone who owned hogs when all this went down, and lived in the state of PA. It was NOT a good time for us hedgie owners, and I would never chance owning one again in the state of PA unless the laws change.

 

[Kalandra]

If you are curious, http://citypaper.net/articles/030702/cs.cover.shtml

This is a link to the underground hedgehog railroad article that was written in 2002. One of my good friends was involved in helping get some quilled ones out of the state. She was the one who the two that were confiscated from Connie eventually went to live with.

 

[CJR]

Please correct your friend at the petstore. S/he can seriously get people in trouble with that information, and get some hogs killed. Trust me as I was someone who owned hogs when all this went down, and lived in the state of PA. It was NOT a good time for us hedgie owners, and I would never chance owning one again in the state of PA unless the laws change.

I will tell them.

That is really terrible though. Why target hoggies like that?