After years of legal battles, the Possum Drop finally may be free of legal challenges.
An appeal filed by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals before last year’s event to challenge a state law removing possum protections from Dec. 29 to Jan. 2 each year was denied earlier this month in a decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals.
“Maybe they’ll call it quits, but somehow I doubt it,” Possum Drop organizer Clay Logan said Monday.
In the case of PETA vs. Gordon S. Myers of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, the organization claims Logan should not have been issued a captivity license to claim a possum to participate in the event. The opinion, filed April 5 in Wake County and written by Judge Donna Stroud, says, “Because there is now a statute directly addressing the substance of this entire case in such a way that no ruling by this court can have any practical effect on the existing controversy, we dismiss this appeal as moot.”