An online vegan activist has compared the racial injustices faced by black people to eating meat in a video many have deemed "tone-deaf" and "embarrassing".
US influencer Lauren Rebecca Perez describes herself as a "plant-based babe" on social media, under her handle @laurenluvsveg.
In a TikTok video she also shared on Twitter earlier this week, the 27-year-old said her vegan lifestyle and the Black Lives Matter movement is "all the same fight".
"The fight to end oppression for animals is the same fight to end the oppression of black people. All sentient beings deserve to live," she captioned the video.
Perez called on people to "connect" Black Lives Matter with veganism.
"Literally all sentient beings on this planet deserve a life free from fear, free from abuse, free from unjust prosecution," she said in the clip.
"It's not their time to die, they don't deserve to die. So stop killing black people and stop killing animals."
Perez's video racked up over 4000 likes, but comments criticising her stance also received greater support.
"I am passionate about animal liberation. I've been vegan for 6 years and was vegetarian for 12 years before that. But this tweet comes across as really tone-deaf and cruel," one woman wrote in a tweet which garnered over 26,000 likes.
"You're hijacking this pivotal moment for the #BLM movement to promote your own agenda. It's a bad look."
"No. You cannot conflate animal rights and veganism with Black Lives," another woman tweeted.
Perez responded to the controversy in a follow-up tweet.
"I'm Latina. The message in my video was this: I'm a vegan fighting to end the oppression of all sentient beings on this planet," she said.
"I support the Black Lives Matter movement and any other movement that seeks to do the same. It's the same fight for me."
Thousands continue to protest around the world against racial injustice following the alleged murder of George Floyd by a white US police officer.
