Top Document: Hedgehog FAQ [3/7] - Intro to Hedgehogs as pets Previous Document: <3.1> What are hedgehogs? Should I get one? What's good and bad about them as pets? Next Document: <3.3> Are hedgehogs wild animals? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Unfortunately, there are some locations that do not yet allow pet hedgehogs. The IHA [2.5] can possibly help provide guidance on how you can enlighten any backward bureaucracies you run into. The list below started as a very stripped down version of the last list published by the N.A.H.A. to which I have also included additional notes thanks to people sending me information. At the moment hedgehogs are not permitted in the U.S. in the states of Alabama, California, Georgia, Hawaii and Utah, although I've been told that hedgehogs are quite available in both Alabama (where they are quite available in pet stores, according to Tim Pearson), and Utah (the official word there seems to be somewhat uncertain -- possibly the same situation as existed in Idaho). To start this off, I have some good news to add for a change. I have received word from Julihana, in Alaska, that: The Alaska Board of Fish and Game called off the ban on hedgehogs on July 1, 1998. There is still a little talk over having to have permits, but after talking to them today, Game and Fish assured me that they are 99% sure that no permit will be required. -- Julihana This is indeed good news, and even if permits are required, that makes it much better than before. Banning hedgehogs in Alaska is one of the few cases which made no sense, from any environmental perspective, as there is essentially no chance of feral hedgehogs surviving through the winter. Kudos to the Alaska Board of Fish and Game for showing a healthy dose of common sense. Arizona is somewhat open to doubt as to its status. It appears that given the right forms of registration, keeping hedgehogs is possible, though this level of registration may be very difficult to obtain. Here are some `clarifications' on the situation: The restrictions in AZ are rather bizarre. A.P. hedgehogs are ``officially'' legal, but F&G doesn't want them there. So, to get around the rules, they say that hedgehogs ``are'' legal if you can first meet certain housing and other requirements. The requirements that they stipulate are virtually impossible for even large, accredited zoos to meet, so the chances of the average Joe being able to keep hedgehogs as pets in AZ are virtually nil. -- Bryan Smith California is well known for being closed to most `exotic' pets. This, unfortunately, appears to be cast in concrete, with essentially no chance for change. At present the Ferret people have been working hard to get ferrets legalized, but even this (ferrets are officially domesticated), is being blocked at every turn, with laws in the works that are intended to all but permanently block any future attempts. The reasons given are `environmental,' with the claimed fear that any such animals being introduced might escape and survive in feral conditions, and possibly upset some part of the existing ecosystem. There are endless further `political' opinions as to further reasons, but this is not an appropriate place to delve into such suggestions. I do know that entering California, you are basically subject to inspection, and if found to be with hedgehog(s), you will be politely, but firmly turned back. A couple of years ago, Georgia clarified their position on hedgehogs, making them officially illegal. Thanks to Jerry in Atlanta for this unfortunate bit of news. My thanks to Alicia Look for letting me know the official word for Hawaii -- hedgehogs are not allowed. The N.A.H.A. had Idaho listed as not allowing hedgehogs, but courtesy of some checking by Wendi Smit, it appears the law is against allowing European hedgehogs as pets, African Pigmy hedgehogs are allowed, and are available in Idaho. Regarding Maine, I've received information from Jazmyn Concolor that indicates there is no actual law which prevents sale of hedgehogs in pet stores. Prior to this the information I had (from Jesse and Kris Welsh) suggested that it was apparently legal to own them, and to sell them privately, but not for pet stores to sell them. Whether this is because of a happy change in the laws, or from the previous situation being either an odd interpretation of obscure statutes, or even a case of it being a municipal regulation, I'm not sure, at least it seems to be a move in the right direction. Maryland has seen the light (in November of 1994 -- Woobie), and is now legit for hedgehogs. New Jersey requires a permit from the State Fish and Game. The permit is $10 no matter how many you have. My thanks to Pam Powers for clearing this up. In early 1997 there was a scare that hedgehogs had been banned in Oregon, but on further investigation it turned out that the ban only really applied to European hedgehogs, and that African Pigmy hedgehogs were legit, no permit required. Pennsylvania apparently has a law to protect its own animal breeders, making it illegal to import hedgehogs into PA (which thereby manages to make it impossible for PA breeders to legally get new stock), although PA-bred hedgehogs are legal. Please note that I've recently (Feb/2002) seen some indications that hedgehogs in general might be being considered illegal in Pennsylvania, and to be very careful of this. I'm sorry that I haven't had the time to look into this futher at present. Wyoming's statutes clearly allow for pet hedgehogs, which is good news: (E) Mammals: [...] hedgehogs (Erinaceus spp.); [...]; certificate of veterinary inspection is not required. -- Courtesy of Steph Hyne Some states also require you to go through their local Fish and Game department (or the equivalent) to get a permit. For example Wyoming and New Jersey require this, as pointed out to me by Marcia Kautz and Pam Powers, resp. In addition to all the above information, anyone breeding hedgehogs in the U.S. for sale or trade, must be USDA registered. This has changed from the previous exemption for ``Pocket Pets'' which allowed small breeders to go without registration and inspections. My thanks to Sharon Massena for passing along the change. In Canada most of the information I have been able to find (courtesy of John Ofner) is that hedgehogs are permitted in all provinces. Until recently, they were not permitted in Quebec, but thanks to Michael Simla, for passing along the following response he received after looking into the matter, it's now clear that they allowed: ``since November 14th, 2002, it is allowed to keep hedgehogs in captivity in Quebec, except the ones from Europe because of the risk of accidental introduction in Quebec's nature.'' There had been conflicting reports that hedgehogs are illegal in the province of Alberta, but it appears that this is now something for the history books. At the very least, there are an abundance of breeders there. Courtesy of Linda Wheatley, I finally have accurate information on the status of hedgehogs in the province of Alberta: Hedgehogs are legal in Alberta but our Fish and Wildlife people are still requiring us to have a temporary shelter permit. Some Fish & Wildlife offices are telling people that it is not necessary to get them and some are saying it is necessary. In short, the letter of the law appears to be that you still need a permit, but some jurisdictions, are simply acknowledging the reality of hedgehogs being pets, and waiving the obvious extra workload it would cause them. Prince Edward Island is that allows Hedgehogs to be bought and sold privatly but Pet stores are not allowed to sell them. Thanks to Shirley Ann Blakeney (and Wesley), for this information on the situation in PEI. There are also some municipalities which have passed laws banning hedgehogs. Here is a brief list of the ones that I am aware of: New York City, NY, USA Windsor, ON, Canada A recent attempt to ban hedgehogs and other exotics, in Toronto, was narrowly averted. I'm still not sure who managed to get thing changed, but they have my personal gratitude! In the U.K. it appears that African Pigmy hedgehogs are allowed as pets: European hedgehogs are partially protected in the U.K. Trapping them requires permission from the proper authorities. However, African hedgehogs are commercially available. -- Travis Carter It also appears that they are allowed as pets in the Netherlands, and possibly throughout other European countries as well. Here in the Netherlands (and other European countries as for as I know of) you're allowed to keep hedgehogs. In the Netherlands the only species that is not allowed to be kept, is the European hedgehog (!?). I know that you are permitted to keep the European kind in Germany. Therefore it's no coincidence that a lot of books about European hedgehogs are of German origin. I'm not sure about regulations in other countries according to the E. europaeus. I think that you can keep them there, except for the U.K. (I know that they are considered to be a delicacy in Portugal and in some East-European countries.) -- Anja van der Werf I should point out here that in spite of Anja's claim about being on the menu, I've been informed that due to their name in Portuguese this seems somewhat unlikely (at least in relatively modern times). Thanks to Teresa Claudino for this information, and as almost every hedgie lover out there probably feels, I can only hope this is true! ;-} It appears that Finland (now) allows African Pigmy hedgehogs as pets: We (yes, here in Finland) now have pet hedgehogs, and its all legal too! (1) it is illegal to hold "European Hedgehogs" as pets in Finland. They are a "protected" spieces, but there are some things you can do: o It is legal to feed the hedgehogs on your yard, as long as you don't take them home o It is legal to build them shelters on your yard, as long as you don't take them home o And (this should be ok) you can take hurt hedgehogs to see a veterinarian (2) apparenlty this protection law doesn't apply to other spieces of hedghogs such as the African Pigmy Hedgehog. Hence they can be freely kept as pets. There are several rules you need to obey when bringing a pet hedgehog from abroad to Finland, but they are mostly quarantine and paperwork related. (3) you can now find pigmy hedgies in at least one pet store (sorry, can't really say much more about this). As far as I can tell, there is now somewhere between 10 and 20 pet hedgehogs in Finland. I know one other owner personally, and know that one couple purchased one from the same petstore we got Noa from. These hedgies arrived from the USA during summer 2001. There should also be at least one breeding couple, but I don't have much info on that. -- Marcin Dobrucki It also appears that African Pigmy hedgehogs (both the white bellied and especially the Egyptian long-eared varieties) are quite popular as pets in Japan, and are legal there. My thanks to Tetsuro Oka, DVM for this information. There is also a growing interest in hedgehogs as pets coming from other parts of Southeast Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.), and from South America (Brazil, in particular). I am presuming that they are legal as pets in these locations (or that there are no laws limiting pets in place), but that `is' an assumption on my part, only. Again, I have no official confirmation of most of these (although the bans listed at the beginning, of this list, are pretty certain), and you should probably check first. There are a number of U.S. states that require permits, and various localities, and individual municipalities may also require special permits. While keeping European hedgehogs as pets is not permitted throughout much of Europe, there are exceptions. I believe it is quite common in Russia, and there is an interesting situation in Germany, as related by Jan Micheel: It is generally illegal to keep pet (European) hedgehogs in Germany since they are an endangered species and therefore protected. There is a notable exception: if you happen to find a specimen in the autumn months which does not appear to be fit for winter (there is also a weight limit), you may keep it until the end of winter. In this case, hedgehogs get free medical treatment. To my mind, at least, this is a policy worthy of some real commendation, and one that should probably be a model for other countries and animals as well. Is my pro-hedgehog bias showing again? ;-} User Contributions:Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic:Top Document: Hedgehog FAQ [3/7] - Intro to Hedgehogs as pets Previous Document: <3.1> What are hedgehogs? Should I get one? What's good and bad about them as pets? Next Document: <3.3> Are hedgehogs wild animals? Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Part6 - Part7 - Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: macnamara@bastet.hedgehoghollow.com (Brian MacNamara)
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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