France in Focus

I follow a couple of Hedgehog welfare people on Twitter and Facebook.
Yesterday one of them posted a very sad item about two hedgehogs she had received in a poor state. After treating them they were returned to their previous garden. A little while later they were both found dead. The hedgehog lady suspects they had been rummaging through a compost bin.
Apparently a garden waste only bin is not hazardous to them but once household food waste is added there is the possibility of a fungal growth that will kill them - fast.
They recommend making sure that the little bighters can’t get in the composter to ensure they survive.
This is potentially a very big issue (if you’re a hedgehog) now the French govt wants us all to compost our household waste.

That is really sad, and will become a big issue. Where are people supposed to dispose of their food waste? Waste disposal is becoming a real headache and has caused more arguements in this house than anything else since the system changed! We don't compost as such, but what little food waste there is - veg peelings or leftovers, get chucked at the edge of our garden waste pile in the top field. Whatever is edible by little or big beastie soon disappears, and we don't eat processed food so hopefully there's nothing poisonous/too salty. When I had to empty the freezer contents up there because the fridgefreezer broke down, nothing touched the emptied bags of defrosted stuff! It eventually got washed into the ground with the constant rain!

Now I'm going to worry I'm potentially harming wildlife.

This source highlight risks to dogs but it applies to all animals
https://riverroadveterinary.com/compos ... y-in-dogs/

Like Bayleaf, our compost is peelings and leftovers, and our compost bin (which we've had for about 30 years) is a cylindrical thing with a lid. the food seems to break down so quickly, we've never needed to empty it. No animal can get to it though there are always worms around the edge !
We're careful with food as we know some things are toxic for dogs. This also means being careful when we dig up potatoes - not good for doggies.

The bin's the same as this one :

Sorry but I am extremely unconvinced by this story.

1. The act of composting is driven by fungi. No fungi = no compost. Given that this is a US story, perhaps (as mentioned) it is the disposal of large amounts of fat, meat and dairy, which could alter the microbiology of the compost heap and would certainly attract vermin - Weil's disease??

2. We compost large quantities of vegetable matter and include household vegetable matter and paper waste*. We also add shellfish remains. Never found a dead hedgehog yet.
* that that we don't burn.

3. We do have hedgehogs. They regularly visit the grange kitchen and help themselves to the cats' dried food. No sign of illness yet.

I have a feeling that this is another vaccination causes autism story.

We have hedgehogs too - I recognise their poo !! Fortunately the dogs have never been attracted to that particular type of poo

Good point @exile about the fat and meat products : fish and meat products are not supposed to go into compost bins in France. They take longer to decompose and smell which would delight scavengers. The quality of a lot of home compost in the US * if they put meat waste in it is very dubious, particularly because of hormone growth promoters and goodness knows what else that gets pumped into animals destined for the food market.
* and doubtless other countries too ...

Countries like UK post-Brexit. Now they are free to import GM foods and meat with growth hormones that the EU has been restricting.