I’m not putting this into the Pit, as PETA’s ability to outrage has degenerated into the same eye-rolling comedy that Bob Hope had acheived by the 1970s.
BRASSTOWN, N.C., Jan. 1 — For the last 12 years, on New Year’s Eve, this Appalachian town has lowered a possum in a Plexiglas cage from the roof of a gas station at the stroke of midnight. It is called the Possum Drop, and hundreds of people pack downtown Brasstown to see it. This time, Baby New Year was awfully still. And as the crowd soon learned, this possum wasn’t just playing possum. It was roadkill.
With just hours to go before the festivities, Clay Logan, host of the Possum Drop, said he got a call from a national animal rights organization threatening to sue him for animal cruelty if he used a live possum. “So I found me a dead one,” Mr. Logan said. As fireworks popped and lovers kissed, the dead possum swung from a Citgo sign. “Hell of a way to start the New Year, saluting a dead possum,” said Steve Barringer, a blacksmith.
Since 1991, Mr. Logan has used live possums, trapped by hunters, fattened on cat food and turned loose after they are lowered slowly by a rope from the roof of his gas station. But on Wednesday, the day The New York Times published an article on the Possum Drop, Mr. Logan got a call from a man who said he represented People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, headquartered in Norfolk, Va. Debbie Leahy, director of PETA’s captive animals and entertainment issues, said she did not know which member made the call but she said the event was “perverse, reckless and terrifying to the possum.” “There’s a number of legal actions we could pursue against that guy,” Ms. Leahy said. Mr. Logan, 57, said he thought about using a live possum anyway. “But I can’t fight these people,” he said. “Not with lawyers and all.”
God, I don’t want to advocate “cruelty to animals”, but ferchrissakes, it’s a POSSUM! They’re fucking nasty, far too numerous and…and…well, they’re just nasty.
WTF is up with PETA? I know there’s been threads about them, but good God! SOMEBODY in that organization has got to know that doing silly shit like this is not going to help their cause, and in fact hurt it by (further) alienating reasonable folks, leavng their organization with noone but shrill extremists?
Oh, I guess that’s already happened…:rolleyes:
you ain’t lived 'til you’ve et good 'possum and sweet taters… ain’t ever fattened one up on cat food though… 'possums that has fattened theyself up on over-ripe persimmons is GOOD EATIN’, sho nuff.
What really steams me is that for all we know, the entire possum population looks forward to being chosen as The Brasstown Possum. Now the hopes of all possum-kind have been dashed!
All he had to do was tell the town in advance what PETA said and tell them that if they wanted to continue the tradition, to come prepared to oust any outsiders or fools with cameras or video cameras.
I’m surprised PETA hasn’t come after me personally for Cruelty to Possums. I’ve kept a count for the past five years of how many possums I’ve partially run over - I’ve never hit and killed one, but I consistently run over their tails while swerving to avoid the animals’ bodies. Current count is 12. If I hadn’t moved I might’ve single-handedly forced an adaptation in the New York State oppossum population, to evolve with shorter tails…
And now that the honor is being bestowed posthumously, we’ll undoubtedly see a rash of holiday suicides next year among North Carolina’s possum population. The poor little critters will be giving up their lives in pursuit of their dream. The carnage will be horrendous.
I hope that Debbie Leahy and the rest of those murdering bastards at PETA can sleep nights knowing that they’ve got possom blood on their hands.
It’s already started. They seem to park themselves RIGHT in the middle of the road, refusing to move. THey must’ve seen this whole thing coming. I knew those PETA folk had to have something to do with it, now there’s proof.
You know, every time I see PETA in a thread title I cringe as it loads up, ‘they can’t have become more stupid and unbelievable’, I think. When the thread loads up, I see they have. If this wasn’t true it would be funny, no wait, it’s true and funny.
Next they’ll be coming after the SDMB for enslavement of hamsters.
