By Jessica Elgot
Huffington Post
UNITED KINGDOM — Beef goulash, Cornish pasties and doner kebabs are all on the menu in British prisons, but if campaigners got their way, inmates would get bean burgers instead of beef burgers.
Its inspiration is “America’s toughest sheriff” Maricopa County’s Joe Arpaio, who not only makes inmates wear pink underwear and pay for their own food, but has now banned meat in the prisons.
Now Peta has lobbied the chief executive of the UK’s National Offender Management Service, telling him follow Arpaio’s example - and offered to pay for a vegan chef to prepare a new menu for Her Majesty’s Prison Service, an offer roundly rejected by the Ministry of Justice.
Peta Campaign Coordinator Kirsty Henderson said: “Unlike most human prisoners, non-human animals raised for their flesh will never know freedom again.
“Caged and deprived of all that is natural and important to them, animals incarcerated on today’s factory farms rarely – if ever – smell fresh air or feel the sun on their backs until the day they are sent off to slaughter. We hope the Ministry of Justice will seriously consider our offer.”
The letter claims a switching to plant-based meals “is a great way to save money and reduce violence” and says it would save money on health care as “vegetarians are less prone to obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes than meat-eaters are”.
Full story: Feed Prisoners Vegetarian Meals, Not Meat, Urge Peta