YouTuber Ross Creations under investigation for animal abuse over ‘opossum launcher’ video

Popular YouTuber Ross Creations is under investigation from the Florida State Attorney’s Office after his video showing a homemade ‘opossum launcher’ sparked backlash online.

On November 30, 2025, Florida-based content creator and prankster Ross Creations posted a video to his Instagram profile showing off an invention that he’d crafted named the ‘Opossum Launcher.’

The contraption is exactly what it sounds like. It was demonstrated firsthand in his viral video, showing a wild American opossum walking up to a trap baited with food, stepping on a catapult, and getting launched several meters into the air.

The critter hit the ground with an audible thud and walked away from the scene without much ado, prompting a disappointed remark from Ross.

Viewers were incensed by the influencer’s video and his seemingly nonchalant attitude toward harming the possum, with many labeling it as “animal abuse.”

Ross Creations under investigation for viral opossum launcher clip

On December 15, reports from local news outlets surfaced stating that Ross is now under investigation from both the Florida State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

The official investigation follows several reports made to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office by concerned viewers, who reached out after viewing the possum-launching video.

Speaking to TMZ, the FWC said they take “wildlife violations seriously” and are “committed to protecting Florida’s wildlife,” urging those with any information on the incident to contact the Wildlife Alert Hotline.

Not much else is known about the investigation at the time of writing, but the short clip has since drawn national attention, even garnering a response from PETA.

“This video is absolutely sickening,” PETA’s Emergency Response Team Director Kristin Rickman said to ABC7. “It’s a horrifying and gratuitous use of cruelty against an animal who is simply trying to exist.”

Florida Statute 828.12 defines cruelty to animals as “a person who unnecessarily overloads, overdrives, torments, deprives of necessary sustenance or shelter, or unnecessarily mutilates, or kills any animal.”

If found guilty, punishments for animal cruelty in Florida can result in both jail time and / or fines up to thousands of dollars.

This isn’t Ross’s first rodeo with the law, either. The YouTuber has reportedly been arrested on two other occasions; once in 2024 for trespassing while filming a video, and another in 2019 for impersonating a police officer.

Ross has yet to make a public comment regarding the ongoing investigation into his video, but the clip itself has since been removed from his page.