A movement is growing in North Carolina to prevent the act of so-called “opossum dropping.”

北卡罗来纳州正在开展一项运动，以防止所谓的“负鼠坠落”事件。

The practice involves suspending an opossum in a transparent box on New Year’s Eve and slowly lowering it the ground as people count down to midnight.

这种做法包括在除夕夜把负鼠吊在一个透明的盒子里，当人们倒数到午夜时慢慢地把它放在地上。

The Raleigh News & Observer reported Monday that a western North Carolina town had conducted opossum drops for 24 years.

《罗利新闻与观察家报》周一报道说，北卡罗来纳州西部的一个小镇已经进行了24年的负鼠跌落实验。

Brasstown in Clay County dropped its last opossum in 2018. But the organization Animal Help Now wants to prevent anyone from doing it elsewhere. That will require a change to state law that allows people to do anything they want to opossums for five days each year.

克莱郡的布拉斯敦在2018年失去了最后一只负鼠。但是动物救助组织现在想阻止任何人在其他地方这样做。这就需要修改州法律，允许人们在每年5天内做任何他们想做的事情。

The group started a petition and gathered almost 160,000 signatures before the petition closed. The group says it’s continuing its legislative efforts.

该组织发起了一项请愿，并在请愿结束前收集了近16万人的签名。该组织表示，正在继续向立法努力。