PETA New Year's opossum drop
PETA New Year's opossum drop. BRASSTOWN, N.C. – A national animal rights group wants a North Carolina man to abandon his famous New Year's Eve Opossum Drop.The Washington-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on Thursday said that Clay Logan's event is "cruel and illegal."
Logan, owner of Clay's Corner near the Georgia state line, hosts the parody of the Times Square Ball Drop as a family-friendly and alcohol-free New Year's Eve party.
The opossum is not actually dropped. It's lowered while inside a Plexiglas box.
Logan was undeterred after hearing about PETA's allegation. He's been down this road before.
In 2005, the group threatened to sue him for not having proper permits to keep a wild animal so he placed a dead opossum in the box and raised it up the pole outside his gas station. The opossum was road-kill.
The crowd, which can number as high as 3,000 with good weather, was not pleased that year and neither was Logan.
"People didn't like it at all," he said. "I got scolded heavy but I said 'Hey, I can't afford to be sued.'"
Logan said he has all his permits, though PETA disagrees.
He said an inspector with the U.S. Department of Agriculture visited him this week and approved of his care for this year's opossum. He names all of them OP.
"At 10 o'clock we bring the guests in and we will raise him up and he sits there for two hours and looks down on everybody — including PETA — and after it's over with we release him," he said.
Logan said the opossum are not harmed.
Some, he said, even hesitate to leave because they've enjoyed the two weeks of dog food and a dry place to sleep that come with being selected for the party.
He picks his opossum after treeing two or three with a hunting dog. He likes the ones with a lot of white in their fur. He said they tend to be gentle compared to the darker opossums.
Opossums have a natural defense called sulling, which is playing dead. He said none of his opossums have ever played dead during the event.
PETA says Logan doesn't have the proper North Carolina permits to keep an animal captive. It has asked the state Wildlife Resources Commission to stop the event.
An official with the agency didn't immediately return a message on Thursday.
PETA said the opossum "suffers through a barrage of terrifying stimuli" such as fireworks and gunfire.
"Ignorance of the law is not a defense, and cruelty to animals is indefensible," PETA Director Delcianna Winders said in a written statement. "Using a captive opossum as the centerpiece of a raucous party is cruel and illegal."
The party, which is free, includes a church choir, a blessing and a tribute to soldiers.
"We do the Lord's work the first half and then we turn the Devil loose the second half," Logan said
The Devil's part comes with men dressed as women for a beauty contest, he said. Logan's quick to point out the men are not in drag.
"They are southern gentlemen dressed up as southern ladies," he said. "I don't like it to be wrote up as men in drag because these guys will whup you over that."
He said a PETA representative visited him and asked him to use a toy opossum but he declined because of the way the group has treated him in the past.
Logan said he has no plans to cancel.
"It's a New Year's Eve party that you will remember what you done no matter how much fun you have," he said.
