We like our compassion packaged with fluff and purrs. But real empathy? It’s not about who’s cutest—it’s about who needs it most. And opossums, misunderstood and often maligned, are long overdue for our kindness.
We live in a world where kindness often feels conditional—reserved for the cute, the cuddly, or the convenient. But compassion doesn’t stop at who we like; it’s about how we treat those who we don’t understand.
Puppies? Protected. Kittens? Adored. Opossums? Too often, dismissed. Or worse, deliberately harmed.
But compassion isn’t a popularity contest. It’s a responsibility. And it’s time we extend that responsibility to animals like opossums—sentient beings who feel pain, fear, and comfort just like the animals we share our homes with.
I have an opossum who comes up to eat with the stray cats I feed routinely. It’s not an everyday thing, but she pops up every now and again. Mrs. O, I call her. Short for Mrs. Opossum, of course. You can tell she’s had a hard life, with scratches and scars on her back. Not many people would consider her cute or cuddly, but I adore her.
Every day, opossums like Mrs. O are met with fear, disgust, or even violence for simply existing. Some people even go out of their way to swerve and hit them on roads. (An experiment found that approximately six percent of drivers intentionally hit animals on the side of the road.) Homeowners lay out traps and poisons to keep them away. And why? Because they don’t fit into our picture of who “deserves” care.
Opossums are not on this planet to scare you, wreck your home, or attack your companion animals. They’re here because this is their home, too. They scavenge, forage, and raise their young in a world that, many times, wasn’t made for them. They experience the world around them in ways not unlike us. And that alone should be enough to treat them with respect.
The truth is: we decide how animals are treated. Every single time we choose to help rather than harm, to move a little slower when we see eyes glowing in the headlights, or to call a wildlife rehabilitator instead of laying a trap, we’re creating a more compassionate world.
And the truth about opossums is they are sentient beings who have every right to live. They are vital to our ecosystem and, no, they don’t carry rabies. And, bonus, if you live in an area prone to ticks, an opossum can eat up to 5,000 ticks per season who might potentially carry Lyme Disease.
At World Animal Protection, we believe that every being deserves a life free from suffering—not just the cuddly ones. Opossums may never win a popularity contest. But they don’t need to. They just need a chance to live free from human harm—and that’s something we all have the power to give.