I must admit my initial reaction was one of horror on hearing the news that 5,000 hedgehogs are to be culled in the Outer Hebrides.

I have a soft spot for our prickly friends and as a police officer have intervened twice to try and help them.

Once I activated a flashing blue light to halt traffic so I could pick up a hedgehog from the centre of the road and place it in the safety of a nearby garden.

On another occasion I came across five baby hedgehogs under a pile of leaves. Informed by an 'expert' that their mother would abandon them because of their discovery, I decided to try to rear them at South Bank police station.

I failed miserably: they all died. I later learned this was probably through overfeeding and too much heat.

The islands of North Uist, South Uist and Benbecula have become overrun with hedgehogs since similarly well-intentioned folk introduced seven there in 1970.

Now 5,000 are to be culled because their growth in numbers has led to a massive decline in the numbers of wilds birds on the islands.

Scottish gamekeepers claim mass slaughter could have been avoided if people paid attention nearly 20 years ago when they first warned of the problem of escalating hedgehog numbers.

This illustrates to me how easy it is for people, like myself, uneducated in the ways of nature, to make judgement from an emotional perspective.

Which brings us to the prickly question of fox hunting and whether it should be banned.

My experience of foxes stems from the three who made their home at the bottom of my garden in Stockton.

The RSPCA informed me they were fine and would move on in their own good time. They certainly seemed friendly enough and would often come to within a few feet.

These urban foxes clearly demonstrate that, like the hedgehog, they are adaptable creatures able to thrive in different environs.

But I wonder how I would have felt if there were not three but 30 foxes. If I had chickens that disappeared or rubbish repeatedly strewn across the street and gardens as Reynard searched for food.

For many in the country the fox is vermin whose numbers must be controlled. The argument goes that if this can be done in a way that also brings money into rural communities so much the better.

Hunts have mounted a major charm offensive in recent years insisting that live foxes are not ripped apart by hounds but run to ground and then shot by the hunt master. Is poison or gas, which doesn't discriminate between species, any more humane ?

The foxhunting debate has led to passionate and compelling arguments from both sides and there is no easy solution, as the Government has repeatedly discovered.

I don't have an answer but I do hope that those engaged in the debate look at both sides of the argument.

They should also consider how they would react if the problem was in their back yard; in a few years' time it might be.

Published: 20/12/2002