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Every day now is filled with phone calls from finders of out-in-the-day hedgehogs. And they are all saying the same thing: "We brought him in, put him in a box and gave him food, he was starving."
They don't realise, but these sweet kind people have just sealed this hedgehog's a daytime wildlife casualty.
I know, it's so hard not to.
When we see a suffering animal we feel a strong, innate impulse to help, and a desire to provide immediate tangible comfort; equating food with survival and care.
Feeding feels like a direct, immediate and nurturing action to alleviate suffering.
Yet it is the most catastrophically harmful thing you could ever do.
Especially hedgehogs out in the day, who will be hypothermic.
It takes a lot of energy to digest food, energy these compromised animals just don't have spare.
Every last bit of their energy is being used to maintain vital bodily functions - to keep the heart beating, to oxygenate the organs.
Forcing energy away from these critical functions for something as non-critical as digesting food will be a death sentence.
It won't be immediate, it may take hours, or a couple of days, but eventually, no matter what the experienced rescue you later take them to tries, the animal is already on the unstoppable journey into shock, organ failure and death.
It's tragic for the casualty and heartbreaking for the rescues.
So please help in the right way.
An out-in-the-day hedgehog needs *contact* warmth, a safe indoor space away from flies, and cover to reduce their stress (please see advice below).
They are not going to die of starvation in the couple of hours between you finding them, and getting them to a rescue.😊
And please remember - any website that gives you DIY information on caring for or feeding injured or orphaned wildlife is, by default, wrong.
The ONLY right action is to get them to a good rescue (never a vet) where their complex needs can be met.
Even if you have seen this vital information before and understand it, feeding wildlife casualties is a powerful compulsion because it directly activates human instincts of empathy and compassion, often overriding the scientific advice against it.
So please remember this warning and spread it as far as you can.
Helping a wildlife casualty get to the expert treatment they need is an incredibly kind, altruistic act of great humanity.
Just remember to provide them with what they need, not what you need.🥰

Thank you so much, we really appreciate this.

We will never forget them. #theyalsoserved

A very happy birthday to you 🎉
@mr_nicholl

So many adverts popping up for Purple Poppies. Sadly people are pocketing the money for themselves from sales. We have been working hard for 10 years to raise awareness of the animals lost in war. We donate the money we raise. Nearly £300,000!

Jeez the guy with the John Lewis X handle is gonna have a rough few days after the release of that ad #JohnLewisChristmas

Our application to become your favourite Christmas TV Ad of 2026 🥹

Follow Jack on a quest to find a loving home for Dogs Trust resident Kira. Her happy place is closer that he first thought…💛

Learn how your support helps dogs find their happy place: bit.ly/3UU6upF

I think the #JohnLewisChristmas ad in 20 years time should revisit this family as granny’s will is being read out. And she’s left the lot to a donkey sanctuary.
Karma, you materialistic little sods.

Our application to become your favourite Christmas TV Ad of 2026 🥹

Follow Jack on a quest to find a loving home for Dogs Trust resident Kira. Her happy place is closer that he first thought…💛

Learn how your support helps dogs find their happy place: bit.ly/3UU6upF

Only 2 episodes up so far but fantastic 👌🏻

If you are starting to build your bonfire for next week, please remember NOT to build it on the spot where it will be lit.
You’ll need to move it the day you light it, or fence off the building area NOW, to prevent wildlife deaths.

A hedgehog who has made it as a nest won’t th a broom, light the bonfire from one side, shine a torch under, or any of the other myths that you have read from well meaning sites.
They’ll just stay in a frightened ball and be burnt to death.

Halloween at Big Bangerz HQ 🎃 Tonight, 7pm to 11pm UK.
A spooky rave banger every 15 minutes, from acid house to trance.
Drop yours in the replies, or tag #BigBangerzHalloween
#BigBangerz💥

NETFLIX has reportedly confirmed Season 3 of ‘MINDHUNTER’, with DAVID FINCHER returning to oversee the crime thriller.

The new season is reportedly being planned to continue Holden Ford and Bill Tench’s investigation into some of America’s most disturbing serial killers, with case that could become their most dangerous yet.

Morning troops 👋🏻 Happy Halloween 🎃 👻

Pumpkins:
Halloween is one night.
Tonight.
If you have to waste a food item (and I strongly suggest you don't), please put it out for that one night, then safely dispose of it.
Please DO NOT put it out for the wildlife.
Once you've handled it, cut it, left it out in the t will not be hygienic or safe for anyone to eat.
Pumpkins are a low-acid vegetable, so once they are cut and left at room temperature, pathogens will rapidly grow on the flesh, producing mould spores.
Our precious wildlife do not have any magical properties that protect them against food poisoning.
Additionally, this time of year there are baby hedgehogs around, born too late to find natural food, desperate to eat anything to stop the pain of starvation.
Pumpkin has a laxative affect so it would be particularly cruel to leave it out for starving wildlife to eat in desperation, causing them to lose precious fluids that may make the difference between life and death.
So no matter what you read elsewhere, please DO NOT put your discarded decoration out for the birds or any other wildlife.
Please DO NOT compost them either, as a composting pumpkin can produce highly toxic tremorgenic mycotoxins, which will be deadly if the compost bin is not properly secured and is accessible to wildlife (or pets).
Many hedgehogs, seeking the warmth of a compost bin, die this way every year.
Once you've used the pumpkin as decoration it's waste, fit only for the bin.

Please help get this vital message spread far and wide, to save precious lives and prevent suffering.

A very happy birthday to the wonderful
@BabaYoungblood 🖤🎉

The first song @ianbrown heard his bandmates play after the reunion was "SHOOT YOU DOWN" and, when asked how it felt he replied:

"It was like getting your own private lapdance."

And this artwork depicts the first time he heard the lads playing it at the studio back in 1989...

SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026)

Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he hiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.

We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in 'Star Trek'. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”. Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes ('X-Men' of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.

America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.

His farewell performance in 'Avengers: Doomsday' is yet to be seen.

Ian McKellen 29 October 2026

Photo: University of Huddersfield