AWOL Hedgehog and Korea's Inadequate Pet Care

A month or so ago, our school acquired a pet hedgehog from another school that could no longer care for it.

The hedgehog (which was deemed male and named Willabee), lived in a large plastic Rubbermaid tub with a make-shift wire lid. He burrowed under some wood shavings and lived what I consider a pretty crappy existence.

For some idiotic reason, some staff members decided to change Willabee’s home from the plastic bin to a wire birdcage. Witnessing the transfer to his new home left me baffled. A wooden loft was built to put inside the birdcage equip with a small wooden ramp with little stairs. Not sure who thought the hedgehog would go up and down the ramp and into a barren loft, but whatever. This all explains why he escaped Monday night.

Poor Willabee is a nocturnal creature. In my opinion, he didn’t have enough wood shavings to burrow properly, and he was placed in a noisy classroom where students and teachers constantly pestered him (when he was supposed to be sleeping). Basically, the Korean teachers had no idea how to properly care for this animal. Hence, the birdcage.

Anyway, Monday night Willabee made his escape. The Korean teacher, who’s classroom was his home, left an old toilet paper roll in the birdcage for the hedgehog to play with (riight). I don’t know if it was luck or intelligence, but Willabee used the TP roll to push open this swinging door at the bottom of the cage. In the morning, the birdcage was empty and the TP roll was still wedged in the door.

After his escape, I researched more about hedgehogs. They are interesting animals… Not really good for a class pet. So much was done wrong for this animal. Not a proper home, being fondled during the day, even being taken outside into the bright light to “walk around.”

Today was Wednesday, and there’s still no sign of Willabee. He could be anywhere in the school - hiding extremely well. I read online that hedgehogs in the wild can roam anywhere from 2-4 km a night (1.2-2.5 miles!) They can scale walls too. I watched a YouTube video of a hedgehog climbing stairs. They can even make themselves into a ball and roll. So they can get around. Unfortunately, if he is hiding and gets too cold, he will go into hibernation mode, which will be fatal. Also, if he really did bounce down a bunch of stairs, he could be injured. He might be injured from the fall from the cage. So yeah, I’m pretty sure the hedgehog is dead. Someday maybe we’ll find (smell) his prickly corpse.

Hmm. I’m beginning to think Koreans have no clue how to care for pets. This hypothesis was further supported on our way home from work today. Two times in a row, we saw people yanking their dog leashes trying to get their dogs to walk. Well, the dog is panting and exhausted. It’s like 80+ degrees out, I’m sure he’s been walking a long time. He’s thirsty, hot, and tired. Pick him up and carry him! This one lady was walking and basically pulling the dog behind her. The dog would trot a few seconds, then collapse, and she would lift up on the leash, lifting the dog by the neck and drag his hind legs along the path. She wasn’t even looking back, just pulling and dragging. WTF! I was like, “She’s gonna pull him along the path until his back feet bleed!” I was pissed.

Oh, and there are pet markets where tiny kittens, puppies, birds, iguanas, hermit crabs, beetles, tons of other creatures are in wire cages (nothing is on the bottom to cushion their legs). They’re just crying inside and there’s just rows and rows of cages. Ridiculously sad. And the ones that don’t get sold apparently just get “set free.” Yeah, that’s good.

In certain aspects, such as pet care, I feel like Korea is a little behind the times. I don’t think Koreans have owned pets for very long, it’s seems like a recent thing that’s slowly gaining popularity. And I know I shouldn’t over-generalize. There are certainly people here who can take good care of their pets, and there are people in the States who are just as cruel to animals.

Anyway, that’s my rant for today. I was so worried about the hedgehog, but I know I just need to let it go and let the teacher who was responsible for him try and find him. There’s nothing more I can do.