I'm sorry that I may have offended anyone here with the opossum. But the way I see it, if the animal is doing personal damage to you. You have the right to do with the animal what you think is fair. Not only could it have this caused a fire in the engine compartment, and ruined the car. And what if someone else was driving the car, lets say my 85 yr.old mother, which is still very active, and still drives. And would have caused her an accident, and maybe killed her or someone else. Also I'm not counting the wire's that it chewed through. If someone else had to take the car in for a mechanic to work on it would have cost them a few dollars. So if all of you think it was cruel to kill the opossum. Like I said before sorry. But now I don't have the problem anymore!