The German connection
Before going on with the ringworm story we need to step back several months in time. This part of the story has been the most difficult for me to research as I have not been able to find the forum posts that directly refer to this event.
From what I can understand in June 2008, Heavenlyhogs imported 3 African Pygmy Hedgehogs which originated in Germany. Whether they came directly from Germany or traveled through the Republic of Ireland I have been unable to confirm. To cut a long story short, it appears that somebody in the pet hedgehog community learned that Heavenlyhogs had imported the hedgehogs without putting them into quarantine, this person reported the matter to the relevant authorities. The following link will take you to a newspaper article about it:
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/2391904.prickly_problem_for_worried_mumoftwo/
In the article she claims that she informed the authorities of her intentions to import the hedgehogs and was told that hedgehogs did not need to be placed into quarantine. As a result of this she was now facing a £4000 quarantine bill.
It would appear that she later told the exotic pet community that she had placed the hedgehogs into a quarantine facility and that this was being paid for with the help of her two autistic children and the disability allowance they received from the government. She also described how she visited her hogs daily. Another forum member said that he or she checked with the facility she claimed her hogs were housed with and they denied any knowledge of Heavenlyhogs or her hedgehogs. When confronted with this fact Heavenlyhogs stated that the facility owner was lying to protect her [Heavenlyhogs] under the data protection act. This story reappears below with some startling new evidence.