PETA says killer should become a vegan

COSTA MESA — Regardless of whether Omaima Aree Nelson — who ate parts of her husband's body after killing him at their Costa Mesa apartment — is granted parole after 20 years in prison Wednesday, she shouldn't be allowed to eat meat of any kind again, according to a prominent animal rights group.

In a letter sent to the warden at Chowchilla State Prison women's facility Tuesday, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals requested that Nelson be switched to a vegan diet if she remains incarcerated — or if she's released.

Though the announcement from PETA sounded like a publicity stunt, representatives contacted Wednesday by the Daily Pilot said the effort to keep the inmate from eating meat is serious.

"The last thing that a convicted killer and cannibal should be allowed to do is chew on these innocent victims' body parts," PETA Special Projects Coordinator Carrie Snider wrote in the letter to the warden. "Eating humane and healthy vegan food will undoubtedly help Nelson lose her taste for blood."

Nelson killed her husband during Thanksgiving weekend in 1991. She was in her 20s, and her husband in his 50s, when the Egyptian model dismembered his corpse and cooked and ate some of his body parts in their Costa Mesa apartment. They had been married about a month.

"If people are revolted by the idea of eating a human corpse, perhaps they should also lose their appetites at the though of eating anyone's skinned and sauteed body parts," said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk in a media statement.

The organization even offered to send the prison one of its vegetarian/vegan starter kits.

During her trial, Nelson's used the "battered wife" defense, claiming she had been raped by her husband the night before she killed him.

The Orange County district attorney's office is strongly opposing Nelson's release. She was sentenced to 27-years-to-life in prison.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @JosephSerna