I know this might be old news but did you hear about the New Zealand man who was with assaulting a boy - with a hedgehog. Police allege that Whakatane resident William Singalargh picked up the creature and threw it about 5m at a 15-year-old. “It hit the victim in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks. They don’t know why the fight started or why a hedgehog was used. It is also unknown whether the hedgehog was dead or alive at the time but it was dead when it was collected as evidence. Singalargh faces as much as five years in prison for the assault and/or hedgehog murder

Policeman, Jenkins said that the man was arrested for “assault with a weapon, namely the hedgehog.”.

Poor hedgehog, to remember him well, I’m sending out lots of hedgehog facts:

• First off not a fact, but a website that’s supposed to be about street safety, we’ll ignore all that and just play the hedgehog games www.hedgehogs.gov.uk
• Hedgehogs are often pictured as fond of milk, while in reality, they are lactose-intolerant.
• Hedgehogs have changed little over the last 15 million years
• The hedgehog’s dilemma describes a situation in which a group of hedgehogs all seek to become close to one another in order to share their heat during cold weather. However, once accomplished, they cannot avoid hurting one another with their sharp quills. Freud used this situation to illustrate that human intimacy cannot occur without substantial mutual harm. With the hedgehog’s dilemma one is recommended to use moderation in the affairs with others both out of self-interest, and also out of consideration for others.
• In a 1970 episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus there was a fake news profile of a crimelord named Dinsdale Piranha, a notorious criminal known for nailing people’s heads to floors. Piranha believed a giant invisible hedgehog named “Spiny Norman” was following him everywhere.
• The Wacky Wheels video game makes humorous use of hedgehogs as projectilesh, maybe that’s what inspired the NZ crime.
• Other folk names include ‘urchin’, ‘hedgepig’ and ‘furze-pig’.
• The International Hedgehog Association’s have a “best-in-show” which is like crufts for Hedgehogs or Tufts, if you will. See the appendix for the categories including temperament and uniformity. **
• In most European countries, hedgehogs are believed to be a hard-working, no-nonsense animal. This partially results from a fact that hedgehogs are believed to collect apples and mushrooms and carry them to their secret storage place. In medieval bestiaries and other illuminated manuscripts dating from at least the 13th century onwards, hedgehogs are shown rolling on and impaling fruit to carry back to their dens.
• Litters of young are called hoglets.
• Self-anointing is an activity only hedgehogs do. It seems to be connected with strange smells or tastes that cause them to produce large quantities of frothy saliva. They then spread the foam over their spines by flicking it with their tongue. It is not known what the specific purpose of this ritual is, but some experts believe anointing camouflages the hedgehog with the new scent of the area.

**TEMPERAMENT
Unrolled 11 points
Quills Flat 11 points
*Personality 11 points
*Note:
Biters are to be deducted 22 points from the total unless that total is less than 22 points, in which case all points are to be deducted.
FACE
Width 2 points
Depth 1 points
Aesthetics 2 points
EYES
Size 1 points
Alert 1 points
EARS
Width 0.5 points
Depth 0.5 points
Aesthetics 1 points
FORM
Profile 5 points
Flow 5 points
Rump 5 points
Weight 10 points
LEGS AND FEET
Number of toes 2 points
Leg set 1.5 points
Front to Back 1.5 points
Side to Side 5 points
QUILLS
Density 5 points
Uniformity 5 points
COLOR
Uniformity 5 points
Typification 10 points
Condition 3 points
PATTERN
Symmetry 9 points

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