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Forestry England has warned people against disposing of Halloween pumpkins by leaving them in the woods for wildlife.
When October 31 rolls around, social media users often encourage people to leave out leftover pumpkins for animals to eat. But doing so can make some animals, including hedgehogs, unwell.
Read more: Wildlife Populations Have Plunged 73% In 50 Years
Pumpkins are not naturally found in British woodlands and are not a normal part of the diet of native animals.
“Feeding pumpkins, or any other food in the forest, to birds, foxes, badgers, deer, and boar can make them unwell and can spread disease,” Kate Wollen, Assistant Ecologist at Forestry England, said in a statement. “Pumpkins are also often decorated and have things such as candles in them. Animals eating the pumpkins could then eat a foreign object and this could kill them.”
Alternative uses for pumpkins
British people buy around 12.8 million pumpkins for Halloween decorations, with most going uneaten. As well as posing a risk to wildlife if discarded outdoors, this creates a huge amount of food waste.
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Forestry England has suggested some alternative uses for Halloween pumpkins, such as making soup or composting. “They are 90 percent water so are a great composting material, adding a great source of nitrogen and moisture to my compost bin each year,” said Wollen.
Pumpkins could also be donated to animal sanctuaries for use as a safe snack for animals such as sheeps* and goats.
*While the English language typically refers to multiple sheeps as “sheep,” we use “sheeps” to emphasize their individuality
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