May 2003 saw the weird denouement of one of the odder episodes tangentially related to animal rights — the sentencing of a couple who nearly starved to death their young daughter on what they considered to be a vegan diet.
Joseph and Silva Swinton fed their daughter only ground nuts, fruit juice, herbal tea, cod liver oil and a liquid mixture of potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantains and fresh vegetables. At fifteen months, the child weighed only 10 pounds
Because of the way child abuse laws are written in New York, the couple were charged with assault against their daughter rather than child abuse, and a jury convicted both Swinton’s on April 4, 2003.
Now most vegans and vegetarians who commented on this case tended to take the line that a) these people were clearly not feeding their daughter a vegan diet (cod liver oil is clearly not vegan), and b) the diet the Swinton’s fed their daughter was not deficient because it was vegan but because the Swinton’s clearly didn’t know what they were doing.
But in New York, several advocates of vegetarianism came out to declare that the prosecution of the Swinton’s was nothing else than the manifestation of an anti-vegetarian/vegan prejudice.
The Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a Brooklyn minister, told New York Newsday,
There is a prejudice against people who practice alternative lifestyles as it relates to food and medicine. . . .I think that these are parents who were engaged in an attempt to provide what they thought was best for their baby. My concern is that justice prevail and mercy be shown.
Newsday also reported that Delois Blakely, a Harlem-based activist (and apparent admirer of the Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe), passed out fliers at the Uptown Juice Bar in Harlem that asked,
Was the Swinton family the sacrificial lamb for the District Attorney’s denouncement of the vegetarian community?
Apparently the jury and judge in the case was a bit more swayed by the horrific condition of the child who, when removed from the Swintons’ custody, had no teeth and was so weak she could not move her arms or legs. Silva Swinton was sentenced to 6 years in jail and Joseph Swinton, owing to his below-average IQ, received a 5-year sentence.
Sources:
Prison for Vegans. Herbert Lowe, New York Newsday, May 20, 2003.
Claims of bias in vegan case. Ron Howell, New York Newsday, May 14, 2003.