PETA Asks Doomsday Bunker Builder to Stock Survival Shelters With Only Vegan Food

Survivors Would Be Better Off Following a Vegan Diet, Says Group

For Immediate Release:
May 24, 2010

Contact:
Lindsay Rajt 757-622-7382

Norfolk, Va. -- This morning, PETA sent a letter to Vivos owner Robert Vicino urging him to serve only meat-free, dairy-free, and egg-free food in his network of underground survival bunkers. PETA's request follows reports that Vivos has nearly completed construction of a fully stocked bunker somewhere under the Mohave Desert and that for a fee, about 200 people can seek refuge from natural and human-caused catastrophes. In the letter, PETA points out that vegans are fitter and trimmer, on average, than meat-eaters and less threatened by leading killers such as heart attacks and cancer. Vicino hopes to construct 19 more bunkers in the U.S. and additional ones abroad.

"Whether you live in an underground bunker or a penthouse suite, the best way to ensure that you'll still be around next year is to ditch meat and go vegan," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "By maintaining a vegan diet, the bunkered survivors would be in better shape to adapt to their post-apocalyptic world and would help put an end to the doomsday scenarios that animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses face every day."

For more information, please visit PETA.org. 

PETA's letter to Vivos owner Robert Vicino follows.

May 24, 2010

Robert Vicino
Proprietor
The Vivos Group

Dear Mr. Vicino:

I am writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our 2 million members and supporters worldwide with a suggestion. I'm sure you agree that in a post-apocalyptic world, it will be crucial to ensure that the surviving members of the human race are healthy. To ensure this, we urge you to require that Vivos shelters be stocked exclusively with vegan food.

Bunkers may protect inhabitants from nuclear war, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks, but if residents are dining on fat- and cholesterol-laden meat, eggs, and dairy products, they're at a higher risk to keel over from heart disease, cancer, or diabetes before the fallout clears. Vegans are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease, have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters, and live an average of six to 10 years longer than meat-eaters do. A vegan diet is the best way to ensure that those in your care emerge healthy and strong.

Stocking up on vegan foods would also protect animals from enduring the horrors of modern factory farms, where every day is doomsday: They are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, gestation crates, and wire cages so small that they can't even turn around or lift a wing. Many have their throats cut and are scalded alive at slaughterhouses.

Won't you please offer your residents--and animals--total protection by serving healthy and humane vegan cuisine? Shelf-stable soymilk, Tofurky jerky, and other protein-packed vegan staples like beans and peanut butter will last longer too. Thank you for your consideration and best wishes for a safe and healthy future.

Sincerely,
Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President