Appalachian Tradition Hangs
in the Balance
Court to Rule on North Carolina Town's Right to Drop an Opossum, a New Year's Rite Deemed Cruel by Animal-Rights Group
Dec. 12, 2013 8:09 p.m. ET
North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis lowers a possum to celebrate the start of 2012 in Brasstown, N.C.Jarrard Cole/Reese News Lab
RALEIGH, N.C.—An Appalachian community's New Year's Eve tradition is at stake this week, as North Carolina leaders face off against an animal-rights group over the 20th Annual Brasstown Possum Drop.
Gov. Pat McCrory signed a law known as the Opossum Right to Work Act earlier this year to allow the mountain community of Brasstown (population 240) to lower a live opossum in a Plexiglass box from a pole at Clay's Corner convenience store at midnight on Jan. 1.
Last year's Miss Brasstown introduces the opossum to the crowd before the Possum Drop. Jarrard Cole/Reese News Lab
The state hopes its new law—which allows it to grant a permit for a wild animal to be held "for scientific, educational, exhibition or other purposes"—will bolster its case in a two-year legal battle with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The Norfolk, Va.-based animal-rights organization argues the opossum drop likely scares the skittish nocturnal critters to death. It successfully blocked the state from issuing a permit for the past New Year's opossum drop and is trying to do so again. While the new law clears up technicalities about handling wild animals, it doesn't change state standards on the humane treatment of animals, PETA says.
The tradition stretches back roughly two decades, when gas-station owner Clay Logan and a group of friends got the idea to celebrate the hillbilly way of life by lowering an opossum, a fixture on the dark mountain roads in Clay County, about 100 miles southwest of Asheville. "If New York can drop a ball and Atlanta can drop a peach, then we can lower a possum," Mr. Logan said.
They decided early on to call the event a "possum drop," he said, figuring no one would come to a "possum lowering."
One of the contestants for Miss Brasstown 2012 had P.E.T.A. WHO? written on her chest. Eliza Kern/Reese News Lab
State lawyers and opponents of the opossum drop faced off in Wake County Superior Court in Raleigh on Thursday over a PETA lawsuit filed in October that seeks to block the issuance of a permit. PETA has given the state sworn testimony from veterinarians who say it is cruel to drop a shy, jittery opossum in a box lit up by floodlights, after a fireworks display and the ceremonial firing of muskets.
Martina Bernstein, a PETA lawyer based in Washington, D.C., played a video in court Thursday of a past drop, where an opossum was surrounded by spectators and the pop of fireworks. "It's something you would not do to your own dog or cat," said Ms. Bernstein. Her work on last year's dispute, totalling $50,895, was reimbursed by the state on a judge's orders.
The opossum, post-drop. Eliza Kern/Reese News Lab
Tamara Zmuda, an assistant attorney general for the state, said the Wildlife Resources Commission wants to find a way to satisfy the competing public interests of lowering a live animal and safeguarding animal welfare. She said the state could make a permit conditional on the use of a much larger box than the one traditionally used, with a place for the opossum to hide and ample food and water.
In passing the law, state legislators called the opossum drop wholesome fun, an economic boost in a poor county—the event has drawn thousands of people to the small town—and an honor to the humble opossum, which is captured shortly before the drop, kept in a clear box with air holes and set free immediately afterward. North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis, a Republican who lives in suburban Charlotte, lowered the box himself in 2012.
Rep. Roger West, a Republican who lives a few miles from Clay's Corner, said fighting PETA is a way to push back on outsiders sticking their nose where it doesn't belong. "People love the possum drop up here," said Mr. West. "They put on a good show, and it's family friendly."
The judge is expected to make a decision in coming weeks. Mr. Logan says that regardless of the call, the opossum drop will go on. When PETA blocked the use of a live opossum last year, organizers went ahead anyway, using a stuffed one. Or that was the official line. Asked whether a live one was used, Mr. Logan was coy. "I can keep a secret," he said. (more below)
I believe the photo of Miss Brasstown is a man.
Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game and the USDA. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.
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