Offensive Hedgehog?

A 'Hedgehog' (difficult to know from the account what actual species) was apparently used as an 'offensive weapon' (like a morning star medieval mace?) by a man in an attack on a youth in New Zealand (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7334233.stm). This, like many examples in the Animal Kingdom, seems to be a case of the attacker 'stealing' the investment of a strictly defensive animal and using its attributes for his own purposes (especially if the animal was alive at the time).