illegal in pa

[ebby6s]

hi..i'm from pa and i was wondering if anyone can tell me why hedgies are illegal here? i've read because the game people say they are exotic...but why would they be illegal? they arent dangerous obviously so i dont understand...maybe someone can clear it up for me haha..


thanks!

[Megan.]

One of the reasons they are illegal is because according to the PA Game Com. if a hedgehog should get out and breed, they can interfer with our hog/pork industry. Thus, they made them illegal. That really is the best answer I can give you.

[Ododad]

There was another thread about this awhile back but I can't seem to find it to post the link. If memory serves me correctly, the answers ran the gauntlet from "Hedgehogs can reproduce quickly and overrun the native animal species" to "Hedgehogs eat wild bird eggs and can destroy the local bird wildlife thus upsetting the natural ecology". Or some other kind of garbage like that. With the climate in PA, I find it very hard to believe that the species of hedgehog kept for pets would be able to survive outside on their own.
JMO

[kaiteedyd]

There illegal because beauracrats are morons.. well I'll be a little nicer, they're ill-informed and don't really care about hedgehogs so it doesn't matter to them if they keep hedgehog's illegal. Plus I imagine they're extra cautious about the environment due to the alarming number of introduced species being pests in the USA.

[curlytail chins]

i personally think it's stupid for hedge hogs and sugar gliders to be illegal in pa. my pet store won't get sugar gliders because there illegal but they sell hedge hogs and alligators all the time. i haven't seen hedge hogs there lately though. but they have a bunch of baby alligators right now. if there worried about these animals getting into the wild and reproducing, i'd be more worried about the alligators. hedgehogs and sugar gliders wouldn't survive the cold temps. the alligators could possibly survive in our underground sewers.

[HedgieSpirit]

I read somewhere Hedgehogs are legal if their ancestors were in PA by a certain date (I can't remember it now..something like 1991) and you also have to be able to prove it. Very few if any actually can be proven though....

[Megan.]

It was claimed they'd be legal. The date was 1992. However, a breeder - even with papers stating some of her hog lines were introduced before 1992 had to get rid of her hogs.

Whatever the reasons, hedgehogs are illegal here. I don't like it, but we gotta live with it--unless we do something about it....without actually purchasing the animals, because they'll only be killed.

Alligators and Crocs won't survive a PA winter. They are hot climated, and our water freezes over. They just aren't meant to live in PA, either.