Hi TLG readers. Here’s a little ditty I wrote about my ethical quandary about possums.
I grew up in Australia and we were taught to call ‘1800InjuredAnimals’ whenever a koala, roo, or possum was hit by a car or attacked by a dog. We were also taught to check pouches for babies and then how to nurture them until a wildlife rescue person arrived. They are protected wildlife.
Since living in NZ, I have had trouble adjusting to the idea of possum’s being pests; they are left for dead, trapped, hunted, or poisoned like rats. Thing is, they are a pest here. They devour NZ native vegetation and eat eggs of endangered birds, and the birds themselves. And, they carry bovine Tb disease.
It’s not their fault that they were introduced at a stupid risk by humans in 1837 for the fur trade, or that they population is high because people continue to earn a salary hunting them, even making a profit from possum meat and fur: “In 1981, the best year for trappers, 3.2 million skins were exported.” The least we can do now is give them a quick and painless death.
Anyway, here’s my road-raging ditty 🙂
Dead Possum On The Road
Dead possum on the road
Aussie’s friend, Aotearoa’s foe
Where were ya trying to go?
Guess you didn’t quite make it home.
Dead possum in the night
Didn’t look left and ya didn’t look right
Now ya brain’s being served a la carte
To the hawk with a fork, taking a bite
Dead possum wanna know
Why it’s mates been so fatigued?
Wants 1080 reasons why
Noone gives a shit how it dies.
Dead possum listens well
To this hiker’s rhetoric written in hell
‘Cos I’m advocating for the devil
About the NZ possum’s peril:
Why’s no one put their breaks on?
Why’s the chicken always make it
Why did history punch the future
With it’s pest infestation?
Now poss has got to ride it
All the way to do or die and
We don’t bat a lid
We all just drive on by
And leave the carcass on the road
For hiker’s to avoid
Unless you’re just like me
Stumped like a dead punga tree
Telling dead possum
That’s its really not its fault
That human history brought it here
To play the role of (economical) enemy
Dead possum on the road
The Literary Gangster 
What a strong way of expressing concern for nature! The poem is beautiful!
Thank you 🙂
I grew up in the American south. The opposum is our only native marsupial, and yes… we call them ‘speed bumps’. And while they’re actually native to our continent, they are still considered major pests. I ran over dozens growing up. You can’t help it; they dart right out in the road, often below your line of sight.
While it’s sad to think of a critter being run down for no reason, the plus side is this: Their specie is in no danger whatsoever of disappearing. They breed like bunny rabbits!
That’s interesting, Shaun! The possums here destroy native forest and are a threat to all of the native bird species which is awful. And they ate my lemons from the tree! Unfortunately they continue to be hunted to keep people in possum hunting jobs and for the fur because as you say, they breed like rabbits! 😦
Yah… I don’t mean to disparage any critter that the good Lord created, but native or not possums are an infernal pest. They take over everything, and they can also carry rabies. They’re kinda bad news, at least in America!
Lucky we don’t have rabies here!