PETA Sued to Stop a North Carolina Man from Dropping a Live Possum to Celebrate New Year's Eve

Clay Logan claims to have been born when Moby Dick was still a minnow, and says he's never hurt a possum in his life. For almost two decades, the North Carolina convenience store owner had been running his own version of Times Square's ball drop that used a live critter rather than a glass ball. But two years ago, animal rights activists started slapping the Brasstown resident with lawsuits. This year, thanks to legal action from PETA, he plans on using "some roadkill or a pot of stewed possum" instead.

"PETA jumped on me when I got an article in the New York Times," Logan told me. "They never bothered me before I was known."

The idea for the possum drops emerged when Logan came across a novelty can of possum in a Mississippi truck stop. He thought, Yeah, that's got potential, and went home to make his own label for the can. Logan says he proceeded to drop the object from the roof of his convenience store in a plexiglass box as hundreds of people cheered him on. Just like that, a tradition was born.

Brasstown has a population of 240 people, and has been stagnant for years. As Logan puts it, "Some lady gets pregnant and some guy leaves, so we haven't grown in a long time." He's never lived anywhere else, though. And he says he's just trying to find a way to bring cash into the small town.

"Our economy is real low," he says. "Every little bit helps." According to Logan, thousands now come to watch the possum drop, and there are other events on New Year's Eve at the convenience store, like a pageant in which local men dress in drag to compete for the title of "Miss Possum."

There's a different possum used each time around, Logan says, because their lifespan is only three or four years. Besides taking a trip in a box, Old Possum—as the locals call him—is paraded around local schools, where he goes by OP, the drug-free possum, and is used as an instructional tool to keep kids from smoking weed.

But even though Logan is quick to defend the event as a boon for the community, PETA is more than a little miffed by the whole ordeal. The animal rights group says that possums, which are notoriously shy animals, are being subjected to hypothermia in the box, and can literally be frightened to death by fireworks. Martina Bernstein, director of litigation for PETA, likens the event to putting a person in front of a firing squad.

PETA first filed suit in 2011, and stopped the event from using a live possum the following year. But the governor signed the Possum Right-to-Work Act in 2013 in order to ensure the show could go on. The activists sued a second time, and Clay County responding by making a new rule indicating that no law relating to the capture of animals would apply during the week of New Year's, Bernstein told me. She added that the amount of effort local officials are willing to exert to preserve the Possum Drop is "breathtaking."

PETA's latest lawsuit is still pending, and Clay plans on beating them so he can have a live star at next year's event. But if he doesn't prevail, the tradition he started will be sorely missed. Clay's website about the Drop features a guestbook, and people who travel to see OP get lowered from the sky offer up rave reviews.

"Was sure glad to hear that the '05 possum was LIVE. As anyone who has ever kicked a dead cow on a late night coon hunt and seen three possums roll out of it knows, possums are just naturally curious," wrote Steve White, from Killduff, Iowa. "I am sure the ride in a limo and then the trip up and down for the drop made this possum's day!"

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