Brian May has criticised meat-eating for being the cause of the coronavirus pandemic and questioned whether there could be a shift toward veggie-based eating in the future.
The 72-year-old Queen guitarist, who has been vegan since the start of 2020, explained that eating animals 'has brought the species to its knees'.
The legendary musician then urged people to re-examine their relationship to animals.
“If you want to get deep into it, I think we should be looking again at whether we should be eating animals," the musician told NME.
"That’s a central issue here, this pandemic seemed to come from people eating animals and it’s becoming more well known that eating animals is not the greatest thing for our health.”
The rocker suggested that effects of meat eating had become more obvious during the pandemic and believed that something had to change.
"To go vegan was just a decision, and I haven’t been preachy about it, but now we’ve seen more of the effects of how eating animals has brought us to our knees as a species, I think it’s time to re-examine our world in a way that doesn’t abuse other species.”
Brian also explained that he would be 'more preachy' about the topic in the future because he believes its the way forward.
"Whether we will see that happen, I don’t know, but I think I will start to be a bit more preachy about veganism because to me it is the way forward, in so many ways.”
May's remarks came shortly after The Beatle's veteran Paul McCartney slammed China's wet markets for harbouring the deadly coronavirus.
Speaking to Howard Stern, the legendary musician and animal rights activist said it was 'medieval to be eating bats' and urged for the markets to be banned.
"It wouldn't be so bad if this is the only thing it seems like you can blame on those wet markets."
Paul added: “It seems like Sars, avian flu, all sorts of other stuff that has afflicted us… and what’s it for? For these quite medieval practices.
"They need to clean up their act. This may lead to it. If this doesn't, I don't know what will."
Scientists are yet to officially confirm how the virus was transferred to humans but it is widely believed to have originated in bats in Wuhan wet market.
A number of epidemics in recent history such as Ebola, MERS, SARS and swine flu, are believed to have originated from consuming or touching animals that are often crammed together in inhumane conditions.
There has been almost 2 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide and at least 126,681 deaths.
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