Recommendations of the Editorial team
Billie Eilisha vegan since the age of twelve, has long been an advocate for animal rights. Last week, in a video interview with Elle, she was asked: “Which opinion would you fight to the death for?”
She probably suspected that the answer wouldn’t be well received – Eilish prefaced her statement with these words: “You won’t like this.” Then she said, “Eating meat is fundamentally wrong.” She continued: “Two things don’t go together: ‘I love all animals so much – and I eat meat.'” “Sorry – you can eat meat, please, you can love animals, but you can’t do both at the same time.”
The criticism didn’t take long to arrive: debates about privileges, accessibility and animal welfare broke out in comment columns and forums. On Thursday, Eilish spoke out on social media. Instead of backtracking, the singer-songwriter upped the ante and posted a series of graphic shots from slaughterhouses on her Instagram Stories that were marked as sensitive content.
Eilish’s clear statement
In a statement posted on the platform, Eilish wrote: “Watch a documentary or two and some footage of what is being done to the animals you claim to love and what it is doing to the planet you pretend to love. If this material was difficult for you to watch, I encourage you to do some soul searching. Because I am so tired of advocacy/empathy for sentient beings being controversial. Continue living in your permanent state of cognitive dissonance and Repression and trying to convince yourself that you’re not living a lie.”
In 2021, Eilish and her brother Finneas joined other artists and actors in Farm Sanctuary’s free 35th anniversary livestream, honoring the first farm animal shelter and advocacy organization in the United States. That same year, Eilish wore an Oscar de la Renta dress to the Met Gala after the label pledged to stop all fur sales. At the time, she told The New York Times that it was “shocking that at this point in 2021, wearing fur has not yet been completely banned.” Eilish added, “I’m honored to have been a catalyst and to have been heard on this issue.”
