{"id":1235559531,"date":"2026-05-08T00:14:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=1235559531"},"modified":"2026-05-08T12:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:38:24","slug":"billie-eilish-responds-backlash-eating-meat-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/billie-eilish-responds-backlash-eating-meat-comment-1235559531\/","title":{"rendered":"Billie Eilish Responds to Backlash After Saying \u2018Eating Meat Is Inherently Wrong\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! -->\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p\n\t\tclass=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \"\n>\n\tBillie Eilish, a vegan since the age of 12, has been a longtime animal rights activist. The topic came up during a video interview with <em><a  rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l78YU_MnTqg\"  target=\"_blank\"  >Elle<\/a><\/em> last week when the artist was asked, &#8220;What\u2019s one hill you\u2019d die on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p\n\t\tclass=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \"\n>\n\tSensing that she would get some heat for her answer, Eilish prefaced her comments with, &#8220;Ya&#8217;ll ain&#8217;t gonna like me for this one,&#8221; before replying: &#8220;Eating meat is inherently wrong.&#8221; &#8220;Two things cannot coincide: &#8216;I love all animals so much and I eat meat,'&#8221; she continued. \u201cSorry \u2014 you could eat meat, go for it, you could love animals, but you can\u2019t do both.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p\n\t\tclass=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \"\n>\n\tThe criticism was swift, sparking debates in comments sections and forums online about privilege, accessibility, and animal welfare. On Thursday, Eilish took to social media to respond to the backlash. Doubling down, the singer-songwriter posted a series of graphic clips from slaughterhouses on Instagram Stories that were marked as containing sensitive content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p\n\t\tclass=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \"\n>\n\tIn a statement posted on the platform, Eilish wrote, &#8220;Go watch a documentary or two and some footage of what is done to the animals u claim to love and what it does to the planet u pretend to love as well. if that footage was hard for u to watch i encourage u to pls take a look at urself. like i am so tired of standing up for\/having empathy for living beings being controversial. pls continue to live in a constant state of cognitive dissonance and denial and try to convince urself that ur not living a lie.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p\n\t\tclass=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \"\n>\n\tIn 2021, Eilish and her brother, Finneas, joined other artists and actors in Farm Sanctuary\u2019s 35th anniversary free livestream to <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/bob-weir-billie-eilish-farm-sanctuary-35th-anniversary-livestream-1239797\/\"  >celebrate<\/a> the country\u2019s first farm animal sanctuary and advocacy organization. That same year, Eilish <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/billie-eilish-oscar-de-la-renta-met-gala-1225759\/\"  >wore an Oscar de la Renta dress to the Met Gala<\/a> after the company agreed to cease all fur sales. At the time, she said in a statement to&nbsp;<em><a  rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"  target=\"_blank\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/13\/style\/met-gala-billie-eilish.html\"  ><em>The New York Times<\/em><\/a><\/em>&nbsp;that it was \u201cshocking that wearing fur isn\u2019t completely outlawed at this point in 2021.&#8221; Eilish added: \u201cI\u2019m honored to have been a catalyst and to have been heard on this matter.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI am so tired of standing up for\/having empathy for living beings being controversial,\u201d said the artist in a social media post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":1235559535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"override_post_title":"","override_post_excerpt":"","authors":[],"contributors":[],"styled_by":[],"_image_credit":"","_wp_attachment_image_alt":"","pmc_selected_wwd_video_media":"","pmc_top_video_source":"","pmc_top_video_duration":"","wwd_top_video_source":"","wwd_top_video_duration":"","pmc_selected_featured_media":"","pmc_selected_video_media":"","pmc_selected_variety_video_media":"","variety_top_video_source":"","variety_top_video_duration":"","pmc_featured_media_has_alt_text":true,"_pmc_featured_animated_media_id":0,"_pmc_featured_video_override_data":"","_pmc_featured_video_override_url":"","_pmc_featured_video_response_data":"","pmc-gallery-linked-gallery":{},"pmc_list_item_description":"","primary_category":"","primary_vertical":"","_mt_pmc_exclude_from_seo":"","_pmc_opengraph_title":"","_pmc_opengraph_description":"","categories":2,"subcategories":4,"pmc-gallery":[],"pmc-imdb-id":"","pmc-review-type":"","pmc-review-rating":"","pmc-review-rating-out-of":"","pmc-review-snippet":"","pmc-review-title":"","pmc-review-canonical-link":"","pmc-theatrical-release-date":0,"pmc-director":"","pmc-review-image_attachment_id":0,"thr_post_headlines":"","_variety-sub-heading":"","mt_seo_title":"Billie 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