Don,

Don't forget. The ground-foraging, egg-eating opossum (had to get in the
bird reference) is protected from swerving cars in Lacey, Washington -
although the case was finally dropped, the city spent a bit of money (and
received a lot of media in return) to persue a case of cruelty to animals
when a carload of local kids "appeared" to swerve to dispatch the
Virginian Didelphis. The local enforcement officer and her prosecuting
attorney were very serious about this flagrant infringement of the
critters' rights.

On Sun, 9 Jul 1995, Don Baccus wrote:

> Once when I was, oh, late Junior or early Senior High School, they'd
> gotten so pestilentially thick in outlying Clackamas County, where
> I lived, that a pest control official was quoted in the Oregonian
> suggesting (with a hint of humor) that people not swerve to miss
> them on highways, but to take careful aim instead.

I remember a bumper-sticker from my younger days in the mid-Willamette
Valley which read:

"OREGON 'POSSUM PATROL - WE SWERVE TO SERVE"

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov