(CN) - A gas station owner in North Carolina is going another round with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals after the animal rights activists lost their first bid to stop his New Year's "Possum Drop" celebration, according to the store owner's attorney.
     Every year, Clay Logan rings in the new year at Clay's Corner by hoisting an opossum in a Plexiglas box and lowering it before a cheering crowd as the countdown reaches midnight.
     In December 2011, PETA filed suit against Logan and Gordon Myers, the executive director of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, claiming the store owner's permit for the possum drop was unlawful and should be revoked.
     A Wake County Superior Court judge booted PETA's complaint because the animal rights group did not have standing, attorney David Wijewickrama told Courthouse News.
     "I thought it was over with," the store owner stated. "But then last week, I got papers again."
     Wijewickrama says the animal activist group filed another lawsuit on Jan. 4, this time seeking to permanently prevent the commission from ever issuing another permit to Logan for the opposum display.
     "The 'Opposum Drop' patently violates the North Carolina statute that prohibits causing or permitting an animal to suffer 'injustifiable pain, suffering, or death,'" according to PETA's first complaint.
     "Captivity can cause such a shy animal to suffer severe and potentially fatal stress-induced conditions, including hypothermia, hyperthermia or capture myopathy," PETA claims.
     "We get the legal permits," Wijewickrama stated. "We're not breaking the law."
     Calley Gerber of the Gerber Animal Law Center in Raleigh, N.C. filed the nonprofit's initial complaint.
     "The opossum is not actually 'dropped,' it is lowered with great care," Logan's website says. "We treat our little friend with respect, hold him in awe, and do not inflict any injury or traumatize God's creature of the night."
     The store owner said this year's opossum drop celebration had the largest crowd turnout yet.