An 11-year-old
Sonic fan's crusade has overturned a citywide ban on hedgehogs in Lawrence, Kansas. As reported by
KTKA, young Judson King wanted one of the super-fast and incredibly agile rodents as a pet, but they were illegal, so he spent three years getting a brief together petitioning city commissioners to overturn the law. The town elders couldn't find a reason behind the blue creatures' banning in the first place, so Master King now has his own pet hedgehog -- Luke.
After doing some research of our own, we've discovered the reason Lawrence banned hedgehogs in the first place. In 1944, a Dr. Eikopf Robotniksky settled in Lawrence, and he just so happened to own a pet echidna. Echidnas and hedgehogs do not get along well, and thus hedgehogs were given the boot. No, really. We're not making this up.
[Via
GamePolitics]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ganrob @ Jan 5th 2009 10:20AM
I heard people kick around hedgehogs where I live.
Disgruntled Sonic fans I guess.
Cutty @ Jan 5th 2009 10:22AM
Dr. Eikopf Robotniksky is clearly a Knuckles fan.
Zertoss @ Jan 5th 2009 10:46AM
I heard they were huge Long John Baldry fans in Lawrence, Kansas. They used to live and die by everything the man said.
MuToiD_MaN @ Jan 5th 2009 2:15PM
In the future, every last person on this site will have pornographic Peach avatars.
Zertoss @ Jan 5th 2009 2:48PM
But no one will know who Long John Baldry is. That is not a future I can endorse.
Onomah @ Jan 5th 2009 10:50AM
the echidna part = too perfect.
Ihavepants @ Jan 6th 2009 1:11AM
Echidnas>HedgeHogs
Although I might be a bit biased, being Australian and all.
But serious like, echidna's are awesome.
LegendaryRedass @ Jan 5th 2009 10:53AM
I think Dr. Robotniksky is now know as Eggmansky.
DBuck_Eye @ Jan 5th 2009 3:54PM
He'll always be Robotniksky to me.
Donald @ Jan 5th 2009 10:53AM
And so another furry is born. Thanks a lot, Lawrence.
Brucie_K @ Jan 5th 2009 10:55AM
Boy, I'd hate to find one of those hedgehogs in my shoe one day! Ouch.
Greg2k @ Jan 5th 2009 11:05AM
What do you feed a hedgehog? Chili dogs?
Haggard @ Jan 5th 2009 11:30AM
Dog food supplemented with insects, according to wiki.
hvnlysoldr @ Jan 5th 2009 2:27PM
So fresh chili dogs right?
Sam @ Jan 5th 2009 11:07AM
Lawrence, Kansas?
I'll bet those winchester boys had something to do with it.
*supernatural high five*
Hashbrown Hunter @ Jan 5th 2009 11:23AM
"On the next episode of Supernatural!
*Epic Music*
Dean: Sammy....what in god's name is that?
Sam: I don't know....but it looks like those games I used to play when I was a kid.
*Screech*
Both: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Every Thursday night at 9/8c. Only on The CW."
baby sea tuna @ Jan 5th 2009 2:59PM
Good call. I was going to blame the ban on the Yellow-Eyed Demon!
CubeGuy @ Jan 9th 2009 6:23PM
I'm not sure I say it enough around here...
I love you guys. xD
Archwright @ Jan 5th 2009 11:09AM
If memory serves, hedgehogs are not rodents. They do not have ever-growing teeth that require grinding down.
An a completely different note, why ban hedgehogs of all things? Kudos to the kid.
Sam @ Jan 5th 2009 11:09AM
oh gawd! Did you have to use the realistic sonic picture? it's so grotesque!
mapi @ Jan 5th 2009 11:12AM
I'm sure Hiro Nakamura had something to do with this story.
Lee @ Jan 5th 2009 11:20AM
Why, was Sonic released on the Gameboy?
PSN: Aggie_CEO @ Jan 5th 2009 11:21AM
3 years???
So he has been Trying to get this ban lifted since he was 8!?!?!?
Jeeeeeeeeeeeeebus.......
Somebody get this kid a fucking Yo-Yo or something........thats all I was doing when I was 8......Playing with Yo-Yos, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.......oh and Hotwheels........
8 Year-olds starting petitions........What The Fuck is the World Coming to!?!?
Haggard @ Jan 5th 2009 11:32AM
A more democratic world, where hedgehogs can live free; away from the forces of tyranny and darkness.
PSN: Aggie_CEO @ Jan 5th 2009 12:26PM
away from Tyranny AND Darkness!?!?
Where might that be?? the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean??
PSN: Aggie_CEO @ Jan 5th 2009 12:38PM
away from Tyranny AND Darkness!?!?
Where might that be?? the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean??
ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Jan 6th 2009 5:42AM
I don't understand why you're mocking a kid who's doing the right thing: he politically disagrees with something, therefore he takes action by peacefully starting a petition to support his cause.
He didn't create a riot, he isn't locking himself inside his room for 100 days for protest, he didn't threaten anyone through violence. This kid is a role model of doing what's right.
Jakka ( The Order of Haters of Balance) @ Jan 5th 2009 11:38AM
Get a dog, kid...
Chris Are @ Jan 5th 2009 11:56AM
Or get the ban on Hedgehogs lifted in your town and have your name mentioned on a videogame blog...
Superstar90 @ Jan 5th 2009 11:53AM
Hedgehogs smell bad anyways.
hfm @ Jan 5th 2009 11:54AM
It's always nice holday when you get a "Christmas With Came True"
Chachchacha @ Jan 5th 2009 12:01PM
uhh... I live in Lawrence, Kansas. My friend owned a hedgehog for a few years that recently died. I believe his name was "Big B". I don't recall it ever being illegal.
MarkShark @ Jan 5th 2009 1:57PM
Sounds like your friend was involved in some underground business.
Jane @ Jan 5th 2009 2:34PM
Hedgehogs are illegal in lots of municipalities without people knowing about it. I doubt anyone would care other than the kid's mother, though.
Abdo @ Jan 5th 2009 12:06PM
I don't know what's more stupid; the law, the kid, or the little backstory these guys came up with.
Vidikron @ Jan 5th 2009 2:04PM
How would the kid qualify as stupid?
Abdo @ Jan 5th 2009 3:51PM
Maybe I spoke without thinking. I take that back. It's actually rather clever of a kid to do all of this, even if it does take three years.
kittiechan @ Jan 5th 2009 12:10PM
Oh Lawrence, how I love thee, you and your bizarre liberal mindset. :)
DBuck_Eye @ Jan 5th 2009 3:57PM
Is a liberal mindset bizarre because it's in Kansas, or because it's a liberal mindset? 'Cause if it's the latter, THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS!
Courtney @ Jan 6th 2009 4:30PM
Actually, it really can be separated out to bizarre mindset and liberal mindset. They don't have to go hand in hand.
JWC @ Jan 5th 2009 12:39PM
And then the kid finds out that a hedgehog is the most boring pet ever. They're nocturnal and you need special gloves just to pick them up. Get a cat.
Moggeh @ Jan 5th 2009 2:26PM
Have you ever really owned a hedgehog? They are actually diurnal, and will wake up when you do if you play with it when you wake up. And most hedgehogs are perfectly loving, and can easily be handled, they just need constant attention when they're small. Otherwise they do become a tad handshy. However, even handshy hedgehogs can get over their fear if you gently play with them every day.
If you did own one, it sounds like you got a bad one. If I was going to gripe about hedgehogs, after owning three, it would probably be able either the hideous smell, or the tendency to die in winter unless you keep them very warm, as if you let most hibernate, they normally die.
Hedgehogs are fantastic pets as long as you aren't an idiot about how you treat them.
Kelly @ Jan 5th 2009 4:24PM
BUT BUT BUT!!!
If he gets a cat it might start on fire in the palms of his hands!!!!
thug_angel @ Jan 5th 2009 12:42PM
In Soviet Russia, hedgehog unbans you...
Alien Lord @ Jan 5th 2009 12:49PM
The law and the reason it existed is pretty funny, even funnier is the fact laws like that exist all over the world.
mr mobius @ Jan 5th 2009 1:56PM
In Lawrence they have hedgehogs.
In Ireland we have leprechauns.
I make mine dress in red instead of green, and I've built a little obstacle course for him to jump around in.
The only thing is, he actually thinks the princess is in the next castle. He'll run around the obstacle course all day, thinking the castle is a different castle, and the princess is actually in it.
I haven't the heart to tell him otherwise, and it is quite entertaining.
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jan 5th 2009 1:58PM
Wait. So he spends three years doing all this work just so he can have a pet hedgehog?
Kid has way too much time on his hands.
Quattro @ Jan 5th 2009 9:06PM
Well he does live in Kansas.
Jane @ Jan 5th 2009 2:31PM
I hope he has a good heater for his new hedgehog this winter. Otherwise he's going to have a very dead piglet.
DBuck_Eye @ Jan 5th 2009 3:58PM
Right now that hedgehog is asking why the hell someone decided to spray paint him blue.