Let Them Eat Steak!

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine have been involved in trying to get convicted New York animal rights extremists vegan meals while in prison.

Three convicted animal rights criminals, Joshua Schwartz, Jennifer Greenberg, and Benjamin Persky recently filed suit against New York City Department of Corrections commissioner Martin Horn. The three claim their civil rights are being violated because they are not being served vegan meals.

In a press release supporting the lawsuit, PETA said,

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, claims that repeated requests to be served vegan meals (without meat, dairy, or eggs) by inmates Joshua Schwartz, Jennifer Greenberg, and Benjamin Persky were denied in violation of their First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as a 2002 federal law guaranteeing the free exercise of religion. PETA is paying the plaintiffs’ fees.

All three plaintiffs practice Judaism, which teaches its followers not to inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on animals. All also oppose eating meat and any animal products, including dairy and eggs, based on their deeply held ethical and moral beliefs. They find it morally unacceptable to support a system in which animals on factory farms live in filthy, overcrowded conditions; undergo debeaking, dehorning, and castration without painkillers; and are often skinned or dismembered while still conscious at slaughterhouses. As a result of the prison?s stubborn refusal to accommodate the inmates? dietary requests, they are suffering from a variety of diet-related maladies, including chronic fatigue, weight loss, and malnutrition.

Schwartz, Greenberg and Persky, of course, were all convicted for their roles in a protest outside the home of a Marsh Inc. executive at which animal extremists threatened to burn down the executive’s home — a violent act of arson which various members of PETA such as Bruce Friedrich have endorsed as being good for the cause of animal liberation. Greenberg and Schwartz were each convicted of one count of criminal mischief for their role in damaging property at the protest, and Perskey plead guilty to two counts of criminal mischief related to damaging property at the protst.

So PETA, Greenberg, Schwartz and Persky believe that they and others in the animal rights movement are free to advocate for and participate in acts of violence and other law breaking, but at the same time they appeal to the very laws they undermine to demand that the rest of us to respect their principles.

Sorry, but you forfeit that sort of consideration when you cross the line into criminal acts and threats of violence. Let them eat steak!

The full text of the lawsuit can be found here.

Sources:

Vegan prisoners denied food and Constitutional right to abide by beliefs. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Press Release, Undated.

Update: This story was updated on Aug. 10, 2003 to add the last sentence in paragraph six outlining the charges that these three animal rights extremists were convicted of.

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