From "Photographer, social media star Matt Mathews: Opossum taken by the state was his ‘baby’" (AL.com).
Mathews, a social media person, is using social media to push his cause.
September 27, 2021
"Yes. I know that it's illegal… but, I have a heart. And I love these animals. I can’t just let them die if there’s something I can do to help."
"'But what was I supposed to do? Let him die?'
Mathews has been rehabilitating opossums for years and releasing them. He is not a licensed wildlife rehabilitation official, a license which he said the state makes nearly impossible to receive. He also said he doesn’t want to be a full-time rehabber—between his photography business and barrel racing, he doesn’t have time. But, he also will never turn down an animal who needs help.
'I don’t consider myself a wildlife rehabber. I rehabbed Donovan,' Mathews said. 'He was my baby. He was a part of my family. I wasn’t taking in babies everyday… I took in Donovan.... I know that I was in the wrong for doing it... But what was I supposed to do? Let him die? I knew I was his only hope. I knew if I didn’t take him, he would die.'
Donovan was physically deformed when Mathews took him in, couldn’t walk and was missing an ear after his siblings had eaten it.... Mathews said Donovan only drinks water with a drop of honey; has a specific diet; loves low-fat strawberry yogurt for a treat; can only eat at a certain angle; and needs help using the bathroom. His eyesight is waning.
Laughing, he said he takes care of Donovan like he would an elderly family member...."
From "Photographer, social media star Matt Mathews: Opossum taken by the state was his ‘baby’" (AL.com).
From "Photographer, social media star Matt Mathews: Opossum taken by the state was his ‘baby’" (AL.com).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
42 comments:
Opossum Lives Matter.
Humans can be really, really cruel, for “all the right reasons.”
How long do you have to wait to know a possum isn't playing?
Marketing is a very powerful tool in intelligent hands. When you understand your market better than your competition, you dominate your market. If Mathews is looking for some growth capital, he's probably having little trouble finding it. I'd invest.
He's made for these times.
I question why any government is paying a bureaucrat to tackle the dire problem of possum rescue. (Blogger is wonky today -- apologies is this shows up more than once)
It’s an opossum-eat-opossum world. And then the government comes to help. It’s for your own good, or halrth & safety, or maybe for the children.
I am not dismissive of the emotional attachments people can have with pets, but people like this always strike me as self-centered narcissists. I think there's something about the dependency that these people thrive on. It reminds me of mother's who feel compelled to have more children as soon as their current child reaches early childhood and is much more independent.
why can't the state outsource the whole thing by put out instructional videos
Four state game wardens and three vehicles to arrest a possum? Who do these guys think they are - the FBI?.
Oppossum are GREAT animals. They eat ticks, snakes, mice, rats ect.... They don't spread rabies. https://littlethings.com/pets/possum-facts/3226931-1
Ann Althouse reading at Alabama dot com. That's a first. Since the Florida panhandle is only 50 to 80 miles wide, I occasionally check it out.
...physically deformed when Mathews took him in, couldn’t walk and was missing an ear after his siblings had eaten it.... Mathews said Donovan only drinks water with a drop of honey; has a specific diet; loves low-fat strawberry yogurt for a treat; can only eat at a certain angle; and needs help using the bathroom. His eyesight is waning.
There's only a finite amount of resources, and i think we can ALL AGREE;
that we should be spending Most of our money and time taking care of crippled vermin.
Just because we can.
Why worry about actual problems? When you can spend your time treating stray animals as royalty?
My blog about saving opossums
(That post is the first in a series. Continue to "Newer Post".)
Possums eat a LOT of ticks!
First they came for the diseased opossums...
Seriously tho, why? Maybe the officials thought, this scoff-law posting his shady possum dealings on social media could result in a lot of people trying to emulate him. I can see that concerning the officials, but was this the only way to handle it?
Couldn't they have acknowledged this was a special and unique case? Couldn't they have worked with the guy to put out social media messaging of their own to discourage wannabe possum cuddlers? The guy sounds very reasonable.
They might have involved Matthews in the relocation process.
At least they should have gone out of their way to reassure the public that they had re-located Donovan to the proper shelter and that he's in good hands in a safe place. That's not only good PR, it's common decency.
Handling it the way they have is likely to result in more people taking in wild creatures they decide need them, not less, because they will believe the authorities don't care and that there are no legal options at hand. Plus it will add an element of moral drama and defiance many will find very appealing. This situation does not increase respect for the wildlife service and the laws regarding taking in wildlife.
I give the wildlife officials poor marks on this one.
"his husband" "Alabama" Say no more. Homophobic jackbooted deep state thugs get off snatching the marsupial from the gay neighbors. I hope the SPLC files an injunction.
Donovan the possum is dead. The state just hasn't admitted it yet because they're having a hard time coming up with a justification for their actions.
OK, so the guy has an obsession, it seems to be pretty harmless, and it seems apparent that without him the 'possum would be dead already. Why in the world would the state get involved in any way?
Why is it illegal? Is it because other people don’t have a heart?
Or is it because people with hearts objectively and unemotionally looked at the risks and sent a signal to those who might act while in a subjective and emotional state?
We all learned from Legally Blonde that the law is reason free of passion. ;-)
I've raised a lot of orphan baby birds. You can keep them free outside. All you're doing is stopping by with food every hour.
It's harder to do now since they reformulated (1990s?) Purina Cat Chow, the universal food, so it no longer absorbs milk.
It takes a couple of weeks before baby birds start showing personality.
Difficult thing to say, perhaps, but yes, you let them die. Rabies potential is too high in those critters to mess around with them. Life is indeed a b****h sometimes, but one has to be a bit philosophical about it.
The same people who are supporting this man and cheering him on, would be condemning him if he was breaking the law trying to save human lives while opposing abortion.
Nature being nature isn't injustice. And it doesn't need some arrogant interloping human to impose himself (herself?) on nature. If you truly love something, you will want for them the ability to be true to that nature.
Yes, you can just let them die. That's how you are helping. Let nature be nature.
"Rabies potential is too high in those critters to mess around with them."
Rabies in possums is very, very rare. Theory is their lower body temperature and strong immune system gives them protection. Some people think they have rabies because of their clumsy movements, but they hardly ever do.
Donovan was physically deformed when Mathews took him in, couldn’t walk and was missing an ear after his siblings had eaten it.
Maybe Nature wanted Donovan to die. How can you go against Nature?!
R C Belaire said...
Difficult thing to say, perhaps, but yes, you let them die. Rabies potential is too high in those critters to mess around with them. Life is indeed a b****h sometimes, but one has to be a bit philosophical about it.
WRONG!!!! They are 10 times LESS likely to carry Rabies. https://possumfacts.com/do-possums-carry-rabies/
Why did the chicken cross the road? To show the possum it could be done.
Yes, you can just let them die. That's how you are helping. Let nature be nature.
On a broader note, let evolution be evolution. A fundamental and necessary component of evolution is extinction. However our current environmental hysteria sees all extinctions as evil and tries to prevent them. Species are supposed to go extinct. How do we choose which ones are supposed to go extinct and which one aren't?
Having had many close encounters with possums, none positive, I said to myself this morning: Tina, you have to get more positive about something.
So I went to the link to buy the possum shirt.
It is indeed the putative possum protector’s page: his S&M porn page.
Not. Uplifting.
wendybar,
Oppossum are GREAT animals. They eat ticks, snakes, mice, rats ect.... They don't spread rabies.
Yes, and they have the largest mouthful of teeth I've seen outside an alligator. (Yes, yes, inside an alligator it's too dark to see anything, yuk yuk.) 'Possums frighten me. Although on such occasions I have also frightened them. You turn a corner and shine a flashlight on a 'possum eating out of your garbage can, and you both are gonna be surprised.
I have no problem with this guy, and think it's preposterous to sic the heavy hand of . . . Alabama (!) on him. Still, couldn't it at least be a raccoon? I can handle raccoons.
What is this - fucking Australia?!
My brother once found a baby opossum hanging by its tail from the drainpipe under his kitchen sink. Raised it as a pet.
The photo of the guy snuggling with an opossum--even kissing the critter--says it all. My experience with opossums in the wild (long ago in an orange grove in San Diego where I lived as a teenager) is that a wild opossum smells like a fresh wind off a garbage dump.
But each to his own; and I assume that he bathed his opossum and scented it up right so it didn't smell too bad. And I can't figure out why it takes four Alabama troopers to remove one possum.
I am guessing the possum was put down the same day they took it.
...and needs help using the bathroom.
How, exactly, does one help an opossum use the bathroom?
Alabama explicitly prohibits by law the possession of a possum by a state resident. I don't know why. But Alabama law allows possession of a wild animal for exhibition, Section 9-11-324, with a mere $25 annual fee and a permit application process that seems quite reasonable.
The guy is not following Alabma law on how to keep a wild animal, and it seems he could.
Yes, I know 'possums eat ticks and don't carry rabies. But they can still be dangerous for horses - they can transfer EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis). Anyone who raises horses should know this.
I have a first-edition of Mrs. Dull's Southern Cooking. It's from the 1930's and has a recipe for opossum. The first step is to throw it into a pot of boiling water to loosen the fur.
I am not dismissive of the emotional attachments people can have with pets, but people like this always strike me as self-centered narcissists
“I am not … but” is how to be censorious while convincing the weak-minded (including oneself) that one is absolutely not censorious. Sonny, you’re busted.
I have a lot sympathy for the guy, and my sense of live and let live is triggered by his situation, but once he went onto social media to tell the world he was breaking state law the only questions were how many officers were going to show up and when.
When possums are outlawed, only outlaws will have possums.
This is just weird all the way around, and the reason I pop in, once in a while. If he can't get a license to be a "wildlife rehabilitation official" can he transfer the care of the 'possum to one? I suppose the role of the licensed folks is to return said animals to the wild if they're healthy and if not..., well they probably don't provide long term care.
Post a Comment