Alligator Online

Hungry UF students ate more than 100 pounds of meat in less than two hours at Tuesday’s People Enjoying Tasty Animals, or PETA, Barbeque.

The barbeque, which was hosted by UF’s College Republicans, was held to “raise awareness about the extreme efforts utilized by the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) organization and demonstrate that the consumption of meat is not inhumane,” according to a release.

The event took place at the Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity house, where visitors snacked on beef, pork, venison and bratwurst.

T-shirts displaying a cartoon picture of a pig roasting over a fire were on sale, and visitors were given fliers listing “problems” with the PETA organization.

Ashley Black, secretary of the UF College Republicans, said she wanted the event to help people recognize the “extreme” views of PETA.

“A lot of people are joining it because of its nice person appeal, but it’s not nice at all. It’s a bunch of extremists,” Black said.

Hunter Williams, chairman of the College Republicans, said no complaints about the event were received.

Instead, a letter was sent from PETA to the College Republicans thanking them for holding the event.

The letter read, “Parody is the most sincere form of flattery. Thanks for honoring us with your event.”

Williams said Alpha Gamma Rho was asked to help host the event because the event, in part, is about supporting agriculture, and he knew the fraternity was agriculture-based.

“A lot of our guys do work in the beef industry,” fraternity president Andrew Walmsley said, adding that he didn’t know of any members of the fraternity who were vegetarians.

The event, which was open to the public, brought in a variety of UF students and other members of the Gainesville community.

UF law student Arturo Armand, 22, said he was amused by the play on words that made parody of the vegetarian organization.

“It’s all in good fun. I had a good laugh when I saw it,” he said.

Black said she first got the idea for the event after hearing about it taking place at other colleges, adding that it’s been done many times before.

She said she was very impressed with the event’s success at UF.

“We didn’t expect anything like this,” Black said. “We thought 100 pounds of meat would be enough for two hours but we ended up having to make two trips to get more.”