If you think hedgehogs are cute animals that can never do you harm, then think again. Musician Pete Doherty discovered this the hard way when he was hospitalized from a hedgehog spike wound on his finger.
Apparently, the former Libertines songwriter and frontman was walking his two Siberian Huskies named Zeus and Narco, when they encountered a hedgehog on the road. One of his dogs attacked the animal and put it in his mouth. Doherty then wrapped his hand around a T-shirt to free the hedgehog from his dog’s mouth, and that was when one of the animal’s quills pricked his finger.
Hedgehogs are normally friendly creatures and they do not go about attacking people. Sometimes they are kept as pets. Their quills are not that sharp and deadly like a porcupine’s, but they do come out when the animal is on the defensive mode.
After 3 days, Doherty noticed his puncture wound was not healing, so he had it checked. As it turned out, the wound was badly infected and he had to be hospitalized because of it. Kate Moss’ ex posted a photo of him in the hospital bed on Twitter, sharing that a hedgehog wound sent him to the hospital, along with a ‘thank you’ to the NHS staff at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Because of his hospitalization, Doherty missed appearing on Nihal Arthanayake’s BBC Radio 5 Live program.
Unlike porcupines, the quills of hedgehogs stay attached to their bodies, so it’ not like that a spike would get lodged in the wound. Also, generally the creature’s quills are soft compared to porcupines, but they use them as defense, sort of like an armor to protect them against predators. With that being said, hedgehogs do sometimes give humans a fungal skin infection, and some of them are carriers of bacteria, especially when they are wild.
