http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=8845

For Immediate Release:
August 22, 2006

Contact:
Bruce Friedrich 757-622-7382

Los Angeles - "Regardless of his guilt or innocence, please don't let
Mr. Karr be responsible for the death of even one more living being,"
urges PETA in a letter sent this morning to Los Angeles County Sheriff
Leroy Baca, who has taken custody of confessed JonBenet Ramsey killer
John Mark Karr. PETA was prompted to write the letter in response to
reports of Karr's taste for foie gras and other foods involving
violence against animals.

"While officials investigate Mr. Karr's confession, he should not be
allowed to continue to support such egregious cruelty to farmed
animals," says PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich. "As you know, many
violent criminals, including Jeffrey Dahmer and Timothy McVeigh,
started out as animal abusers, and it's been found that many serial
killers have a background history of torturing animals. Feeding inmates
bean burritos rather than baby back ribs might just help break the
cycle of violence."

For more information, please visit PETA's Web site GoVeg.com.

PETA's letter to Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca follows.

August 22, 2006

Leroy D. Baca, Sheriff
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

1 page via fax: 323-267-6690

Dear Sheriff Baca,

On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), I am
writing to ask that you put John Mark Karr on an exclusively vegetarian
diet.

As you may know, Mr. Karr's final meals before being put into your
custody included roast duck and foie gras, the latter of which is
produced by ramming a pipe down birds' throats and force-feeding them
until their livers become so grossly distended that the birds have
trouble moving. Mr. Karr's meals supported cruelty to animals that
would warrant felony charges were dogs or cats abused in the same ways.

Undercover investigations at America's two leading foie gras
producers revealed that ducks were kept isolated in wire cages so small
that the birds could barely move. Barrels full of dead ducks who had
choked to death or whose organs had ruptured during force-feeding were
also discovered. Day-to-day operations in such places are enough to
make even seasoned crime scene investigators feel queasy.

Mr. Karr is alleged to be a child pornographer, and we have all heard
his statement about JonBenet Ramsey. Regardless of his guilt or
innocence, please don't let Mr. Karr be responsible for the death of
even one more living being. Please feed him something other than the
remains of factory-farmed animals. In fact, keeping meat off all
inmates' plates could help killers lose their taste for blood. As you
know, many violent sociopaths, including Jeffrey Dahmer and Timothy
McVeigh, started out as animal abusers, and all the school shooters and
serial killers of recent years have a history of torturing animals for
the feeling of power it gave them. Feeding inmates bean burritos rather
than baby back ribs might just help break the cycle of violence.

Some of the world's greatest visionaries, including Albert
Schweitzer, Mohandas Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, and Albert Einstein,
advocated vegetarianism as an extension of humanitarianism. Nonviolence
begins in the kitchen-in this case, it can begin in the prison
kitchen.

Other animals feel every bit as much pain as we do, they are horrified
at the sight and smells of the slaughterhouse, and they're afraid to
die. Like human beings, they fight for their lives and wish to avoid
pain. Unlike the humans in the prison system, all of them are innocent.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Bruce Friedrich
Vice President, International Grassroots Campaigns

****************

Scum of the earth. How unbelievably crass.

TC