Influencer slammed for comparing Black Lives Matter to animal rights movement

The influencer came under fire for comparing the animal rights movement to Black Lives Matter. Photo / Instagram

A vegan influencer has been slammed online after claiming the killing of black people and animals were "the same fight".

Lauren Rebecca Perez is a US influencer who describes herself as a "plant-based babe" and tweets under the handle @laurenluvsveg.

The US has been brought to a standstill as protests continue in response to the killing of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who died after officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for several minutes.

While some protests have been peaceful others have turned violent as looters take advantage of the unrest to rob businesses and police react aggressively to try to control crowds.

The movement has prompted an outpouring of support across the world, with many showing their solidarity with protesters through social media.

In a video originally shared to TikTok that was later posted to Twitter, Perez urges people to "connect the dots" and think of animals.

"I feel like this needs to be said and I really wish that more people would connect these two dots, but black lives matter and animal lives matter," she said.

"Literally all sentient beings on this planet deserve a life free from fear, free from abuse, free from unjust prosecution."

Perez said no one, "especially ones with differently coloured skin than yours and animals" deserved this kind of ill-treatment.

"It's not their time to die, they don't deserve to die. So stop killing black people and stop killing animals," she said.

Perez ended her video by calling on people to "connect" Black Lives Matter with veganism.

"Veganism, Black Lives Matter movement is all the same fight, all of it and it's important each one of them is so individually important," she said.

"I really hope that people can start to connect the two."

However, not everyone agreed with her video, which quickly racked up more than 500,000 views who were blunt about her argument.

Perez's post even attracted criticism from another vegan:

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 & cruel. You're hijacking this pivotal moment for the #BLM movement to promote your own agenda. It's a bad look.

— Jessica Masterson (@jlmasterson) June 3, 2020

Perez has since responded to the controversy:

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. I support the Black Lives Matter movement & any other movement that seeks to do the same. It’s the same fight for me ❤️

— Lauren Luvs Veggies Ⓥ (@laurenluvsveg) June 2, 2020

Perez isn't the only influencer to be slammed over her response to the protests.

A video of a woman pretending to help repair a ransacked Los Angeles shop for a video op before hopping back into her Mercedes and driving off has been viewed more than 25.3 million times.

Another video of an activewear-clad woman posing solemnly in front of a broken window before walking off has also been shared multiple times.