Wildlife lovers are concerned about the welfare of two rescued hedgehogs which were stolen from an enclosure.

The animals were taken from a pen belonging to East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS) in Uckfield.

Staff from WRAS have been looking after 95 hedgehogs this winter and they are in the process of returning them to their home ranges.

WRAS Hedgehog Co-ordinator Kathy Martyn said: “We believe they will have been taken at some point between 8pm on Friday April 17 and 11am on the Saturday.

“The pens and hedgehogs are checked twice a day and these were about to be put into carriers and returned to our casualty centre so they could be taken out for release.”

The two hedgehogs are microchipped and can be identified. The charity is appealing for the animals to be returned, as wild hedgehogs do not make good pets and struggle to survive if released into an area which does not already have hedgehogs.

Charity founder Trevor Weeks MBE said: “Our volunteers have worked so hard this winter looking after these hedgehogs and it feels like a kick in the teeth that someone has taken them and wasted all our hard work and we obviously don't want them to end up suffering.

“This is the first time we have had anything like this happen in the 30 years which I have doing rescue work.”

Anyone with any information should contact Sussex Police on 101 quoting crime reference number 47150047796.