The fate of injured hedgehogs will now depend on whether or not they are found in an area infected by foot and mouth.

Any hedgehog in distress must now be put down on the spot if it is inside an exclusion zone, so as not to spread the disease.

But those spotted in non-infected areas can be given help by local sanctuaries and vets - provided they get the blessing of local MAFF officials and keep them in isolation.

Hedgehogs were included in the Government's restriction on movement orders because they can catch foot and mouth, as can sheep, cattle, pigs, deer, goats, elephants and rats.

Selby Animal Sanctuary owner Joan Scott said today she was very relieved to hear she could help, despite the disease restrictions.

She said: "We are a registered carer of hedgehogs and, from the information we have received, I believed we couldn't take in hedgehogs full stop during the present crisis.

"This is a little bit of good news among all the gloom because this is the time of year when we start getting hedgehogs in as they wake from hibernation.

"We're not in an infected area and we have a place where we can isolate them, so there shouldn't be a problem."

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society said that although hedgehogs were a family on their own, they were linked slightly to swine.

Spokeswoman Ann Jenkins said if anyone found an injured hedgehog on the road in an infected area and took it to a "local carer", they would be breaking the law.

She said: "They have to phone their local MAFF department or the RSPCA, who would then put the hedgehog down in situ.

"In another month, we will start getting litters and that will prove a problem.

"Obviously those found in towns stand a better chance of survival because there is no livestock and less risk of foot and mouth, but people have to understand they can't just move them willy-nilly."

The greatest threat to hedgehogs' survival is winter starvation, followed by motor vehicles.

Updated: 12:07 Thursday, April 05, 2001