PETA Urges Texas Prison Officials to Provide Vegetarian Meals to Suspected Cannibal

PETA Urges Texas Prison Officials to Provide Vegetarian Meals to Suspected Cannibal

For Immediate Release: January 10, 2008
Contact: Bruce Friedrich 757-622-7382

Norfolk, Va. - PETA has dispatched a letter to Smith County Jail warden Capt. Gary Pinkerton urging him to provide accused murderer Christopher Lee McCuin with only vegetarian meals to prevent him from "being involved in any senseless killing" while in prison. McCuin is accused of killing his girlfriend, dismembering her, and cooking and possibly consuming her body parts.
PETA points out that the same violent acts that McCuin stands accused of are carried out against more than 10 billion farmed animals in the U.S. every year. Stressing the link between cruelty to animals and other violent crimes, PETA asserts that vegetarian meals promote nonviolence--in addition to being healthy, cost-efficient, and easy to prepare.

Says PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich, "If people are revolted by the idea of eating a human corpse, they should also lose their appetites at the thought of eating the flesh of other tortured victims."

For more information, please visit PETA's Web site GoVeg.com.

PETA's letter to Capt. Pinkerton follows.

January 10, 2008
Capt. Gary Pinkerton, Jail Administrator Smith County Jail

Dear Capt. Pinkerton:
On behalf of PETA and our more than 1.8 million members and supporters, I am writing to ask that you prevent Christopher Lee McCuin from being involved in any senseless killing while in your prison by providing him with exclusively vegetarian meals.

As you know, McCuin allegedly killed his girlfriend, cut up and boiled parts of her body, and may have consumed parts of her corpse. Tragically, every day in homes and restaurants across the U.S., humans cut up, cook, and devour the corpses of chickens, pigs, fish, and cows. Only in a culture where people routinely kill and eat living, feeling beings would anyone even think to kill and eat a human loved one.

Like humans, animals are made of flesh, blood, and bone. They have the same five senses that we do, and they have the same capacity to experience suffering and fear. And all animals share the desire to live their lives free of pain and to avoid a violent death.

It is up to you to prevent McCuin from contributing to any more suffering and death by placing him on a healthy, humane vegetarian diet.

Please visit the Web site GoVeg.com to see video footage that depicts the cruelty of factory farming and to obtain vegetarian recipes. Vegetarian meals are healthy, cost-efficient, and easy to prepare. They also promote nonviolence, which is something that every prison needs. We also would be happy to help you design meatless meal plans for McCuin--or even the entire prison.
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you. I can be contacted at 757-622-7382 if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Bruce FriedrichVice President