Michail Antonio has questioned whether West Ham United teammate Kurt Zouma 's abuse of a cat is worse than racism.
Zouma sparked outrage after being filmed kicking and slapping his pet cat earlier this week, with the club fining him a "maximum amount" of £250,000 - reportedly two weeks' worth of wages.
And while the Frenchman is co-operating with the RSPCA, who have taken away his two cats and are liaising with Essex Police about the incident, fellow West Ham star Antonio has hit back after some called for him to be sacked.
Speaking candidly from his car window, the Jamaica international told a Sky Sports reporter: "I've got a question for you. So, do you think what he's done is worse than racism?"
As the reporter attempted to answer by raising differences between the two situations, Antonio continued by saying: "I'm not condoning a thing that he's done - I don't agree with what he's done at all.
"But there are people who have been convicted and caught for racism, and have played football afterwards. They got punished - they got an eight-game punishment or something like that - but people are now calling for people to be sacked and for them to lose their livelihoods."
He then reiterated before driving off: "I've just got to ask this question to everyone out there: is what he's done worse than what the people have done who were convicted of racism?"
After the story emerged on Monday evening, over 165,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Zouma to be prosecuted for animal cruelty, with a legal complaint even filed against the 27-year-old in Paris.
The 30 Million Friends Foundation (La Fondation 30 Millions d'Amis), France's largest animal rights group, contacted prosecutors and Zouma could now face four years in prison.
But backlash increased tenfold when Irons manager David Moyes named the defender in his starting XI for their 1-0 win at home to Watford on Tuesday.
Quizzed on his controversial decision post-match, Moyes told BBC Sport : "It's something we're all disappointed with and something we can't understand.
"He'll learn from it [but] today I had to pick a football team that gave me the best chance of winning the game as manager of West Ham.
"I know how people feel, but I'm also a football manager here.
"My feeling was that Kurt has apologised and I understand a lot of people will not just be accepting of an apology. But to me he came out and [apologised] honestly and I had to do my job."
In a statement, West Ham - having lost multiple sponsorship deals in the aftermath - confirmed that Zouma's fine would be donated to animal welfare charities and that the player is "extremely remorseful."
