The creature, which was just a few months old, was found by the pair when out walking in Berga in the municipality of Kalmar in southern Sweden. It was spotted on the bike path with a hairband wrapped around its neck.
“I’m absolutely furious. This was so horribly unnecessary,” Christina Söderman, who came across the dead animal, told a local newspaper.
“The animal was so small it must have only been born this year. Later the police came and took the hedgehog away.”
Local police have since launched an investigation into animal cruelty into the death of the young hedgehog.
Hedgehogs numbers have decreased in recent years and are a protected species according to the Swedish Society for the Conservation of Nature (Naturskyddsföreningen).
TT/The Local/pr
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