Activist, actress, model and vegan Pamela Anderson has long been a supporter of animal rights. The star has campaigned for change in several ways in recent times, and remains vocal about animal welfare issues on her social media pages. However, now Anderson has urged the NSW government to introduce vegan meals in their facilities, in a bid to reduce violent behaviour, the Daily Mail reports.
In her role of honorary director of PETA, Anderson has penned a letter to the NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin in Australia. Anderson has requested that vegan meals be served to inmates, suggesting that the change would help to reduce violence.
According to the Daily Mail, Anderson was “spurred into action” after reading about plans to introduce yoga, meditation and tai chi to female inmates.
In her letter, Anderson said: “I read about your plan to rehabilitate female inmates through mindfulness exercises and yoga and wanted to make a suggestion that could further help embrace nonviolence, switching to nutritious vegan meals in your correctional facilities”.
She added: “Not only would providing vegan food honour one of the driving principles of yoga – ahimsa (doing no harm) – by sparing animals lives, it could also help improve the health of the women in your facilities while decreasing long-term healthcare costs”.
Anderson also highlighted a case study undertaken at Arizona’s Maricopa County Jail, whereby the jail’s menus cut out meat products. “Maricopa County Jail switched to all-vegetarian food for its 8,000 inmates and reported a saving of US$273,000,” she explained. Anderson also revealed that the prisoners were “impressed with the freshness and quality of the food”.
Anderson has certainly worked to make waves in the vegan world. She has released a cruelty-free shoe line, challenged the mayor of America’s ‘fattest’ city to go vegan, and has tried to convince reality star Kim Kardashian to ditch fur, saying: “[Y]ou can be a hero for animals as well as a great example to all your beautiful followers”.
Anderson has also previously spoken out about following a vegan diet, encouraging people to choose a “plant-based diet for compassion!”.
