PETA Wants to Turn Dahmer’s Childhood Home Into ‘Eat for Life,’ a Vegan Restaurant

Site of Killer’s First Murder Could Become a Place to Contemplate Nonviolence

For Immediate Release:
April 4, 2014

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Now that serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood home in Akron is up for sale, PETA has sent a letter of enquiry to the real-estate agent handling the property, Richard Lubinski, expressing the group’s interest in opening a vegan restaurant on the site. PETA points out that murderous actions such as Dahmer’s—from binding victims’ limbs, drugging and dismembering them, refrigerating parts of their bodies, and eating them—are still carried out on other living beings who happen not to be human and that one way to turn evil into good would be to convert the home into a vegan restaurant if a zoning variance can be had. PETA would call the restaurant Eat for Life: Home Cooking.

“What Jeffrey Dahmer did shocked everyone, and the violence inherent in putting meat on the table today should also shock all but the most hard-hearted person,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “Establishing a vegan restaurant in Jeffrey Dahmer’s old (slaughter)house would allow people to think of all the individuals who are still being killed and eaten and encourage them to practice kindness to animals with every bite they take.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to Lubinski follows.

April 4, 2014

Richard Lubinski, Realtor
The Lubinski Group

Dear Mr. Lubinski:

I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to learn more about the property listed for sale at 4480 W. Bath Rd. in Akron, Ohio. Given that this is the spot where Jeffrey Dahmer grew up and committed murder, it may provide an opportunity for us to respond to the past with something positive. Our idea is to convert this location into a vegan restaurant. In case there are zoning restrictions in place, we would be willing to ask the Akron Board of Zoning Appeals to reconsider.

For those following Dahmer’s story, the pattern became familiar: Dahmer drugged his victims, dragged them across the room, and bound their legs and feet. Their struggles and cries went unanswered. They were slaughtered and had their heads sawed off. Their body parts were refrigerated for later consumption, and their bones were discarded with the trash. But, horrifyingly, this violence did not end with Dahmer’s incarceration or death. It continues in the same way but with different victims today—more than 30 billion animals are slaughtered in just this way for food in the U.S. each year.

We are always looking for ways to draw attention to the violence inherent in the production of meat, eggs, and milk—which involve processes that would shock all but the most hard-hearted person. Dahmer’s old house gives us a way to evoke sympathy for these victims and to suggest that a life-affirming diet can change everything. It offers a way to point out that all animals are made of flesh, blood, and bone—just as we are—and that they have the same five senses that we do and the same capacity to experience suffering and fear. In addition, they want to lead their lives free from pain and avoid a violent death. It gives us a way to point out that there are fabulous, violence-free ways to eat that avoid all blood and guts. Do you think that the house could be turned into a trendy dining spot that inspires visitors to practice compassion with every bite that they take—by going vegan? Please get back to me with your thoughts on this matter. Thank you.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President