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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 11:50 AM Jun 2014

Opossum Drop bill shows how low NC can go

Over the past few weeks, in a stunning display of legislative efficiency and bipartisanship that Washington lawmakers can only dream of, both houses of the N.C. General Assembly worked together to rush through what was apparently the most pressing issue of this legislative session: the legalization of cruelty to opossums.

Now, opossums in Clay County can be abused between Dec. 26 and Jan. 2, for the sole purpose of allowing Opossum Drop organizers to dangle a terrified opossum above a crowd of rowdy revelers each New Year’s Eve, something prohibited under law and for good reason. It is inappropriate to torment wildlife for fun.

Opossum Drop event sponsor Roger West proposed the legislation just as PETA’s latest legal challenge to using a live opossum at the event was heating up. In an admission that the Opossum Drop always has been illegal, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission ran to the legislature to help it avoid doing the right thing. Enter HB 1131, which legalizes cruelty to North Carolina’s official state marsupial, as long as it takes place in Clay County during the week of New Year’s Eve.

Meanwhile, wildlife rehabilitators who toil night and day to feed, medicate and care for injured, ill or orphaned wild opossums are still subject to the same laws that North Carolina’s lawmakers decided shouldn’t apply when you lock a timid opossum in a box and force him or her to endure a barrage of screaming celebrants, thumping music and deafening fireworks – in other words, all the things that frighten opossums most.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/16/3941556/opossum-drop-bill-shows-how-low.html

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valerief

(53,235 posts)
1. WTF? Are these people brain-dead? Why would they want to hurt opossums?
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 12:12 PM
Jun 2014

Opossums are nature's garbage collectors. They don't bother anyone. They just eat carrion and move on. They're not aggressive and don't even carry rabies.

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)
5. Not entirely accurate.
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 02:10 PM
Jun 2014

They CAN be aggressive. Most are not, but holy shit, we've had some crazy ones in my neighborhood.

But I totally agree, they are not rabies carriers.

 

phil89

(1,043 posts)
2. I think to myself...what a wonderful world
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 12:12 PM
Jun 2014

Nauseating. I hope there is a way to expose participants to their employers, families, etc and anyone with a professional license should lose it. Mindless cruelty on display...

wandy

(3,539 posts)
3. You might get arrested for gathering around the capitol singing songs and.......
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 12:38 PM
Jun 2014

and carrying signs. But that's OK. You're rivers may run gray with coal ash. But that's OK. Expanded Medicare giving some help to the disadvantaged. Never! That's OK too!

Ahhhhh, but remember you can swing an Opossum over you're head till you and the Opossum drop. Heck you can even throw firecrackers at the critter.

The the good life, living in a GOP controlled state.
The freedumb of Teapublican democracy.

Not picking on N.C. Just pointing out the GOP "fringe" benefits.

arikara

(5,562 posts)
4. That makes me feel sick to my stomach
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 01:04 PM
Jun 2014

Maybe they should put that Clay guy in the cage and terrify him, a few of those good old boy legislators as well.

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)
6. "Torture an animal for New Years!"
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 02:13 PM
Jun 2014

Gross. I mean, that is really vile. Even if you consider a opossum a pest, or even a food source, why would anyone want to torture one like that?

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)
7. Maybe this rodent killing will get the attention of the national media to report on the criminals in
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 02:29 PM
Jun 2014

the N.C. legislature and the many anti-democratic and criminal laws they are passing.

On what screwed up planet do these good Christian Republicans live in? Is there no living creature, including humans, they are not gleeful to torture?

These guys love the Bible, except for all the times they don't.

n2doc

(47,953 posts)
8. They're not rodents
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 02:30 PM
Jun 2014

They are marsupials. They just look like a big rat. But they will eat rats if they can catch them.

BlancheSplanchnik

(20,219 posts)
9. GODDAMMIT
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 02:31 PM
Jun 2014

There are some people I hate so much.






Fucking goddammit..... such sweet little creatures.....godddddddddammmmittttttttt

A Simple Game

(9,214 posts)
12. No wonder the possums are moving north.
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 02:50 PM
Jun 2014

Started seeing them in Northern New York about 20 years ago. Still kind of rare but not uncommon to see one now.

rickyhall

(4,889 posts)
13. Don't they have better things to do?
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 02:57 PM
Jun 2014

Oh, right, teabagger legislature. My mistake, my bad, never mind.

CaptainTruth

(6,576 posts)
15. Let's say we organize a Dumbass Drop ...
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 10:24 PM
Jun 2014

Oh wait ... NC politicians already act like they've been dropped on their heads. Nevermind.

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