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Police arrest frat brothers after opossum contest
By MIKE WELLS of the Tribune’s staff
Published Saturday, November 20, 2004

A bizarre fraternity contest resulted in animal cruelty allegations early yesterday when Columbia police discovered that members of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity had stuffed about 40 opossums - half of them living - in a large, plastic barrel.

Police responded just before 2 a.m. to a complaint about noise outside the agricultural fraternity’s house at 602 S. College Ave. They found fraternity members behind the house, standing around a truck and staring into a barrel.

The container was about two-thirds full of opossums. Police then called for assistance from the Missouri Department of Conservation.

The owner of the truck, Zachary W. Famuliner, and Adam P. Thomas, both 19, were arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty and holding live opossums without a permit.

Famuliner and Thomas, both members of the fraternity, told police they’d collected the animals as part of a fraternity contest. Members drove around, found dead and living possums and returned them to the fraternity for points - one point for each dead creature and two points for each live one.

Conservation agent Scott Rice took the animals to a remote area south of town, released the live opossums and disposed of about 20 opossum carcasses and two dead raccoons.

Conservation District Supervisor Cheryl Fey said some of the dead opossums might not have started out as "road kill."

"Probably some of the opossums did die because of being put into the barrel," she said.

Catching a live opossum can be dangerous, she said. "It’s my understanding that there were some scratches and bites on some of these young men’s hands."

"They were going to release the opossums into another fraternity’s yard," Fey said. "But they didn’t say which fraternity."

Famuliner and Thomas were taken to the Boone County Jail and each was required to post $1,000 bond. The offense is a class A misdemeanor, with punishment of as much as a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. In addition, the two teens face possible suspension or revocation of hunting and fishing privileges.

In addition, four charges are pending against two Alpha Gamma Rho members for spotlighting and killing four deer out of season near Easley in two incidents late last month.

Fey said her department has had several problems in the past with other fraternities destroying signs and trashing rural conservation areas by holding large outdoor parties. But she said that this was the first time in her memory that such a group had been accused of being cruel to animals.

An Alpha Gamma Rho member who answered the house phone yesterday said the group declined to comment.