Bruce Fredrich, the vice president of PETA, speaks out to students gathered in the Armory last night about meat suppliers’ mistreatment of animals, which include keeping them in cramped cages and boiling them alive.

McCruelty: They’re hatin’ it.

In the latest phase of a campaign to oust McDonald’s from the Stamp Student Union for serving unethically slaughtered chickens, university vegetarian and animal rights activists hosted the vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to address the cause.

Before a gathering of 25 students in Reckord Armory last night, Bruce Friedrich spoke out against meat suppliers that provide McDonald’s and other fast-food chains with animals raised in cramped cages and killed by being boiled to death.

Michelle Carr, the president and founder of vegetarian student group VegTerps, wanted to bring a PETA representative to the campus to clear up any misconceptions about their campaign and to give the campus community a chance to learn about their cause.

“We want opinions from every side of the spectrum since this is such an important issue that will effect campus life,” Carr said.

The joint campaign of VegTerps and peta2, the collegiate off-shoot of PETA, began earlier this semester and the groups have already collected more than 2,000 signatures on their petition to remove McDonald’s from the student union.

“They’ve gathered thousands of signatures from people who eat meat but don’t support McDonald’s, which is impressive,” Friedrich said.

But Friedrich doubts that carnivores can advocate for the cause.

“If you are eating animal corpses and trying to be an activist, it’s hard to believe,” Friedrich said.

Friedrich said McDonald’s does not belong on a college campus and called for the chain to be replaced with a restaurant like Chipotle or Johnny Rockets, which offer vegetarian options and are openly opposed to the factory-farm system.

Unlike those restaurants, McDonald’s hasn’t acted against the cruelty of their suppliers when they could possibly create change within the fast-food industry by taking a stand, Friedrich said.

McDonald’s Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility Bob Langert said that the fast-food corporation tries to work with animal welfare experts and expects humane treatment of the animals it buys from its suppliers.

“Our goal has always been to lead the industry by bringing about improvements in animal welfare including rigorous, ongoing audits of our suppliers’ facilities,” Langert said.

PETA and VegTerps hope that McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants halt suppliers’ cruel methods of killing animals by promoting a controlled-atmosphere option, where chickens die painlessly from lack of oxygen.

But this concept may be a pipe dream.

“It is also important to note that in the U.S., there are no large-scale chicken producers that currently use the CAS method, therefore demands to purchase chickens from this method to meet McDonald’s supply needs are not viable,” Langert said.

Regardless, the groups will continue their drive for signatures until they can make their case to Dining Services, which contracts some of the restaurants in the student union.

dcetrone at umdbk dot com