A mother opossum carries her babies on her back as she makes her way back to her den after a night out in a neighborhood on the far eastside of Indianapolis, Friday, May 12, 2000. (AP Photo/John Harrell)RALEIGH, NC (AP) -
Former game-show host Bob Barker is telling North Carolina lawmakers that caging a live possum for a New Year's Eve event in the mountains isn't good show business.
Barker wrote this week to a Senate committee's members asking them to oppose a bill that would let the organizer of the Brasstown "Possum Drop" keep suspending a possum in a box every Dec. 31 and lowering it gently to the ground.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals complained about the event. A judge ruled state regulators don't have explicit authority to permit the display. A House bill approved this week would change that.
Barker says the event is inhumane and loopholes for animal abuse shouldn't be created.
PETA released the letter. Barker is a longtime animal rights activist.
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