Hedgehog painted blue and yellow in Leeds “could have died”

A hedgehog that had been painted blue and yellow “could have died” without treatment and care, a wildlife charity has said.

The adult female was found in a woman’s garden in Yeadon, Leeds, and appeared to have been sprayed with the Leeds United colours or to look like Sonic the Hedgehog.

The fumes from the substance meant the hedgehog could not breathe properly or curl up into a ball, and its rescuers had to scrape the oil-based paint from each spine and administer pain relief.

Diane Cook, from Prickly Pigs Hedgehog Rescue in Otley, said: “It might seem funny painting a hedgehog blue like Sonic, but it’s an unbelievably stupid thing to do.”

She added: “It was clear that it wasn’t done accidentally because she didn’t have any paint on her tummy or legs or her feet, so it wasn’t as though she’d fallen into some kind of wet paint.

“Quite literally, all of her spines on the top of her head were just absolutely covered.”

As the hedgehog had no way of defending itself from predators, it could easily have been killed.

The paint also restricted the mammal’s movement, so it could have eventually succumbed to starvation or malnutrition.