McDonald's: Hedgehog Friendly Finally

LONDON - Fast food just became hedgehog-friendly. McDonald's Corp. said Friday it had redesigned the cups for its McFlurry dessert so that they no longer posed a danger to the spiky woodland creatures.

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society has campaigned for years against the containers, saying hedgehogs had died while trying to eat leftover ice cream from discarded cups. Campaigners said the opening in the lid was large enough for hedgehogs to stick their heads in, but not to get them out again, and that animals not rescued by passers-by had died of starvation.

McDonald's U.K. said that after "significant research and testing," it designed a McFlurry cup with a smaller opening. McDonald's began deliveries of the new lids to restaurants in Britain last week.

"The smaller aperture of the lid has been designed to prevent hedgehogs from entering the McFlurry container in the unfortunate incidence that a lid is littered and is then accessible to wildlife," the company said in a statement.

Fay Vass, chief executive of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, said the change was "excellent, if long overdue news."

She said the new cups meant "many hedgehog lives will be saved."