A couple days ago, The New York Times ran a story about Brasstown, N.C., which celebrates New Year’s Eve with a possum drop. No blood sacrifice involved: just the lowering of a marsupial from a gas-station roof in a Plexiglas box; after said event, the marsupial is set free to resume its life of dodging cars. But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals saw this as an exercise in cruelty, called the organizer and threatened to sue. The designated New Year’s possum was set free, and an unlively substitute starred instead. Not all is lost, though: While you ponder whether there really is any way to interact ethically with a possum, you can shop for possum drop merchandise.
"You want it to be one way. But it's the other way."