By AP/KWMU
Columbia, MO – The animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is criticizing a fraternity at the University of Missouri's Columbia campus for a stunt involving opossums.
Two members of Alpha Gamma Rho are charged with stuffing about 40 living and dead opossums into a barrel. It was part of a contest for which they got points for gathering the animals.
PETA wants the frat to bar the use of wild animals in chapter activities. But Alpha Gamma Rho's national executive director, Philip Josephson, who called the stunt "deplorable," said it wasn't sponsored by the fraternity. He added there are no plans to bar wild animals from fraternity events.
It's not clear how many of the opossums died because of the stunt.
The two men charged in the incident have pleaded innocent to three misdemeanor charges.