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“Why would you use that emotive language knowing it would offend people.”
Vegan activist Tash Peterson has riled TV host Piers Morgan for comparing the slaughter of farm animals to the Holocaust.
The outspoken Aussie animal advocate appeared on Morgan’s TV program Uncensored alongside American conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren.
In the segment, Morgan belted out several claims including that veganism is a “fad” and was “going out of fashion”. He added that people were also “fed up” with Peterson’s histrionics and called her out for likening the slaughter of animals to a holocaust.
“Why do you use the word holocaust,” Morgan said.
“Holocaust is the mass extermination of more than 6 million Jewish people by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
“Why would you use that emotive language knowing it would offend people.”
Largest holocaust in human history
Peterson, 29, replied that she was using a factual statement since a holocaust by definition means “slaughter or destruction on a mass scale” and said, “non-human animals can be subjected to the same atrocities that humans can”.
“If you look at the definition of a holocaust it is slaughter and destruction on a mass scale,” she said.
“Non-human animals can be subjected to the same atrocities that humans can.”
She added: “In fact. It’s the largest holocaust in human history, with 3 trillion individuals brutally murdered each year for human consumption.”
Morgan asked Lahren, who comes from a ranching family in the US, for her opinions. She said: “I’m against factory ranching and farming as well, I think that’s atrocious, but as someone who comes from a ranching family I can tell you that ranchers and farmers care for their livestock.
“Yes it does at the end of the day turn into a product for human consumption but that doesn’t mean it is always inhumane, that it’s always disgusting, that it’s this animal holocaust or genocide.”
Morgan also referenced ex-self-proclaimed vegan Bear Grylls, who recently went back to eating meat after living the vegan lifestyle for a while.
Peterson countered that the host of the popular survival series Man vs Wild was “never a vegan”.
“People go by that label all the time but if they actually truly hold the ethical view against animal abuse and murder they would never turn their back on veganism,” she said.
Morgan then expressed his disdain at the use of meat names for vegan substitutes and ended the segment by saying that “I love meat. I won’t be persuaded otherwise .”
Throwing shade at Peterson’s protest methods, he also said there are better ways to convince people to go vegan “than running into restaurants and playing noises of screaming animals”.
Who is Tash Peterson?
Peterson is notorious for demonstrations in Australia.
She started grabbing eyeballs with her bold stunts, including holding a severed pig’s head in front of a butcher and walking topless, covered in blood, into a Louis Vuitton boutique.
She recently made headlines for protesting outside Perth restaurant Fyre after owner and celebrity chef John Mountain banned vegans from the venue.
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