Possum-throwing...

I was literally speechless with incredulity when I saw this article on Danielle's facebook page today. Mind you, not because I was aghast at the treatment of the these dead animals, but excited by the awesome factor of it. Coming from an animal welfare background in my Masters study, I imagine you'd expect me to be at least mildly critical of the event. Instead, I'm pleasantly surprised by the "gala" at this New Zealand school. Let me explain.

I am against the mistreatment of dead animals and humans in the sort of disrespectful ways that some people maim dead animals and use them for photos or disfigure them. However, we kill pests and dissect animals for learning; this is ok. In my opinion, the throwing of dead possums falls somewhere in between these practices. And if you're outraged about them being thrown you've missed some of the point. They also trapped all of the possums in the first place similar to how you would rid your house of ants, spiders and mice in your own home. Obviously, if you find a dead animal somewhere on your place, you're likely to either throw it in the garbage or put it out back somewhere, but entirely less likely to bury some strange animal that you consider a varmint with the care that you would show to your pet. Possums definitely fall under the category of varmints in my book and in most countries, except for Australia apparently.

With possums as varmints (and altogether very nasty animals based on my encounters with them) then I feel no shame or guilt in killing them and little remorse in their death by any means. They are vicious and self-serving disease vectors that would as soon give you rabies as eat your pets. Thus I doubt you'll bury one when you find it, so why are people so upset about these possums being pitched? This was just a celebration of the success of the pest trapping, right? It would seem that they are offended because this is a competition and an organized event in which kids are throwing dead possums without any good cause (catching them wasn't?). Well, they're kids, and they ought to be let to have a little fun. This is like a learning experience where they get to embrace fear of a nasty animal while having a little bit of fun. Besides, they're celebrating their hard work. Frankly, from an animal welfare standpoint it's not a big deal because it's not hurting the possum at all (which doesn't have any feelings beside hunger even when it's alive); the possum's already dead. And the kids will automatically learn more about the animal with the hands-on experience than they ever would have in school iteself.

Does this mean they'll disrespect death in other cases such as treasured pets and humans? Death is all around us. It's death of something that gives us nourishment, regardless of our diet base, and death is literally a fact of life. This is the way things work and it's important for kids to learn this at an early age. Catching these possums to reduce their destructive impact on the school area in the first place is part of this "circle of life". These possums will soon be eaten by other gross scavengers and bacteria that are just waiting for the chance to multiply. I think that kids will continue to respect death in the way in which it deserves to be respected just so long as they have good parents who can help them paint the lines and appreciate the difference between primordial instinct to play with dead animals (we learn much more by play than classroom education) and the passing of "Tiger" the cat. One is loved by you, and another is not. The difference is that other people can empathize with you when you lose a dog, but there is no sympathy for the bottom-feeding, hand-biting, last marsupial in America. We need to draw lines, and the whole reason we get into such problems in the first place is that people have started failing to draw them and the gray area in between has gotten too big.

This article far outshines my original post concept about Bill Clinton changing towards a "plant-based diet". I would too if I had had a heartattack, etc., in my recent years. Then again, Bill, you could just divorce Hillary and then be free of all the stress that crazy lady adds to your life.