Group Calls On Local Prison to Reduce Violence With Vegetarian Fare
For Immediate Release:
February 2, 2012
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Bridgeport, Conn. -- Today, PETA sent a letter to Warden Timothy Farrell Sr. of the Bridgeport Correctional Center, where Tyree Lincoln Smith is awaiting trial. Smith was arrested in Florida after allegedly killing a man with a hatchet, cutting out the man's eyeball and a piece of brain matter and eating the organs. The group is requesting that the jail help quell Smith's apparent thirst for blood by providing him with flesh-free meals, which would be cost-effective and ensure that Smith does not contribute to any needless violence.
"Evidence suggests that vegetarian meals can reduce violence among offenders—and if anyone needs a reduction in violence, it's someone who killed and ate another human being," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "PETA can help Bridgeport Correctional Center introduce a menu of bean burritos instead of hamburgers and so save many lives."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA's letter to Warden Timothy Farrell Sr. follows.
February 2, 2012
Warden Timothy Farrell Sr.
Bridgeport Correctional Center
1106 North Ave.
Bridgeport, CT 06604
Dear Warden Farrell:
On behalf of PETA and our more than 3 million members and supporters, including thousands across Connecticut, I am writing to suggest that you help ensure that alleged killer and cannibal Tyree Smith swears off flesh forever by providing him with exclusively vegan meals while he is in your custody.
If Smith did, in fact, kill Angel Gonzalez and eat parts of his body, that would demonstrate a disturbing taste for flesh. Opting to feed him only vegan foods and denying him meat (flesh) could diminish such a tendency and thus potentially help protect staff and neighboring inmates. In fact, a meat-free meal plan could benefit all your other inmates too. Some prison operators—including those at Alabama’s highest-security prison, William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility—have found that switching inmates to vegetarian meals can be a successful part of a violence-reduction program.
Every vegan meal served at your facility would spare helpless animals from their own death penalties. In today’s industrialized meat and dairy industries, animals face cruelty not unlike that which Smith allegedly inflicted on Angel Gonzalez: Chickens and turkeys have their throats cut while they’re still conscious, piglets have their tails and testicles cut off without being given any painkillers, fish are suffocated or cut open while they’re still alive on the decks of fishing boats, and calves are taken away from their mothers within hours of birth.
Vegan meals are healthy and easy to prepare, and they can be less expensive than meat-based dishes. I hope you’ll agree that going vegan is the best way for Smith and other inmates to start making more compassionate choices. PETA would be happy to help you design the perfect cruelty-free meal plan for the Bridgeport Correctional Center.
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Lindsay Rajt
Associate Director of Campaigns