CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Outrage after gruesome video shows a group of people set an opossum on fire in Charlotte. North Carolina Wildlife Officials say the three people seen in that video could face felony charges.
Those three people are not just cruel but also stupid, as it appears they uploaded the video online to their own social media accounts, making it easy to identify them. In fact, on Friday night they were online bragging about it.
The video shows them squirt lighter fluid at the animal and then set it on fire. Animal advocates are outraged. Carolina Wildlife Conservation Center executive director Morgan Rafael says, “It was one of the most disturbing videos I’ve seen in wildlife cruelty.” She continues, “No, I can’t save this particular possum, but I can talk to the cruelty that wildlife faces…wildlife feels pain, too. No animal, no living being, deserves to be treated like this,” she says.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police and the NC Wildlife Commission are investigating. The FBI also tracks animal cruelty cases but the agency is currently not involved in this investigation.
