NORFOLK, Va. (Reuters) - Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh turned down an animal rights group's suggestion that he not eat meat ahead of his planned execution, but he said he understood their cause and argued in a letter released on Monday that even plants feel pain.
``Truth is, I understand your cause -- I've seen slaughterhouses myself -- but I still believe in reasonable taking and eating of game (as an outdoorsman and hunter),'' McVeigh, 32, wrote to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in a handwritten letter postmarked April 6.
McVeigh is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 16 for the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.
PETA, in a letter written in March, asked the warden of the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, to serve McVeigh a meatless last meal, saying he should not be allowed to ``take even one more life.''
But prison warden Harley Lappin said last month McVeigh could eat whatever he wanted for a last meal ``within reason.''
In a separate letter to McVeigh, the group asked the Oklahoma City bomber to ``choose to eat a vegan diet for the remainder of your life, or at the very least for your last meal.''
In response, McVeigh said he wanted to limit debate on the matter because his ``time is short'' and then proceeded to lay out commonly heard arguments against vegetarianism.
``Where do those who oppose suffering stand? (Ever see a fish struggling out of water?) ... And finally, plants are alive, too: they react to stimuli (including 'pain'); have circulatory systems, etc.; how about them?
``To me, the answer is as the Indians believed: respect for the life you take to sustain yourself, but come to terms with your place in the 'food chain.' Best of luck, Tim.''
McVeigh commended the group on a ``good job getting the attention to your cause,'' comparing PETA's effort to persuade him to eat a meatless diet to its ``protesting dead rats on 'Survivor','' a highly rated television show McVeigh has said he enjoys.
Bruce Friedrich of PETA said he recognized McVeigh was in the media spotlight, but added ``the tragedy of the bombing can serve to focus attention on the tragedy inflicted every day in the slaughterhouses of this country.''
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