PETA Pushes Vegan Diet For Indiana Man Accused Of Murder, Cannibalism
People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, more commonly known as the animal rights group PETA, has long been a proponent of vegan and vegetarian diets, working to integrate them in various parts of society, including prisons. But one place that won’t be going veggie anytime soon is the prison system in Clark County, Ind., after a letter sent by PETA outraged the county’s acting sheriff, Brian Meyer.
The letter, according to USA Today, asked Meyer to restrict prisoner Joseph Oberhansley to an all-vegan diet with no meat products. Oberhansley, 33, was arraigned in court on Monday for allegedly breaking into the home of his ex-girlfriend, Tammy Jo Blanton, 46, earlier this month in Jeffersonville, Ind., and is said to have murdered her and abused her corpse by eating parts of it. He was arrested Sept. 11.
Lindsay Rajt, the associate director of campaigns for PETA, who signed the letter, said many prisons have experienced a decrease in violence since switching to meat-free menus. “Only vegan food could diminish that bloodlust and might even help protect staff and neighboring inmates,” she said.
But Meyer did not see it that way.
"It's bad enough when you lose someone to natural causes, let alone dealing with a loss this violent," he told WHAS, a TV news station in Louisville, Ky., across the Ohio River from Jeffersonville. "That they (PETA) would do this is unfathomable to me. It's insult added to injury. It's unforgivable and they've lost all credibility with me."
Upon first inspection of the letter, Meyer thought it was nothing more than a “cruel joke. When I realized it was real, my first thought was to not even respond because it’s ridiculous.”
The letter is not the first request that PETA has made to institute vegan menus. It previously made a similar request in a murder case in Tennessee and felt that doing so in the Jeffersonville case was acceptable given the cannibalistic nature surrounding it.
"We really want to take a situation that's a tragedy and make it into something positive — to reduce the total violence in the world," said PETA spokesperson Kenneth Montville to the Jeffersonville News & Tribune. He maintains that everyone is “rightfully horrified” by the alleged act of Oberhansley, and that switching to a vegan diet would reduce violence and jail costs.
Meyer though said that the sensitive nature of the case is what made the letter inappropriate. “I can’t believe they would be so insensitive to the victim and her family.”
Oberhansley is currently being held in Clark County Jail without bail. His trial is expected to take place in February, according to the NY Daily News.