North Carolina
Related: About this forumOpossum 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 Years 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 PETAs 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 Carolinas official state marsupial, as long as it takes place in Clay County during the week of New Years 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 Carolinas lawmakers decided shouldnt 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
valerief
(53,235 posts)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)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.
valerief
(53,235 posts)phil89
(1,043 posts)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)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)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)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)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)They are marsupials. They just look like a big rat. But they will eat rats if they can catch them.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)There are some people I hate so much.
Fucking goddammit..... such sweet little creatures.....godddddddddammmmittttttttt
tclambert
(11,120 posts)A Simple Game
(9,214 posts)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)Oh, right, teabagger legislature. My mistake, my bad, never mind.
CaptainTruth
(7,095 posts)Oh wait ... NC politicians already act like they've been dropped on their heads. Nevermind.