"I am so tired of standing up for/having empathy for living beings being controversial," said the artist in a social media post

Eilish, a vegan since the age of 12, has been a long-time animal rights activist. Last week, during a video interview with Elle, the artist was asked, “What’s one hill you’d die on?”

Sensing that she would get some heat for her answer, Eilish prefaced her comments with, “Ya’ll ain’t gonna like me for this one,” before replying: “Eating meat is inherently wrong.” “Two things cannot coincide: ‘I love all animals so much and I eat meat,'” she continued. “Sorry — you could eat meat, go for it, you could love animals, but you can’t do both.”

The 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.

In a statement posted on the platform, Eilish wrote, “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.”

In 2021, Eilish and her brother Finneas joined other artists and actors in Farm Sanctuary’s 35th anniversary free livestream to celebrate the country’s first farm animal sanctuary and advocacy organization. That same year, Eilish wore an Oscar de la Renta dress to the Met Gala after the company agreed to cease all fur sales. At the time, she said in a statement to The New York Times that it was “shocking that wearing fur isn’t completely outlawed at this point in 2021.” Eilish added: “I’m honored to have been a catalyst and to have been heard on this matter.”