Elon Musk has criticised a proposal by the Irish government which would see hundreds of thousands of cows culled to combat the climate crisis.
The hugely influential CEO of Tesla took to Twitter over the weekend to slam the controversial plan, which is part of the country's effort to meet climate targets.
According to a Telegraph report, the Irish government has proposed to slash the national dairy herd by 10% – meaning a cull of 65,000 cows a year for three years.
Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Twitter and numerous other companies, said such policies "really need to stop".
"The push to end life, of both animals and humans, in the name of “climate activism” is fundamentally evil," a Twitter user posted on 3 June.
"This really needs to stop," Mr Musk commented back, adding "killing some cows doesn’t matter for climate change."
This really needs to stop. Killing some cows doesn’t matter for climate change.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2023
Ireland has approximately 2.5 million dairy and beef cows, according to the provisional Irish June Livestock Survey published by AHDB.
Beef and dairy account for around two-thirds of its agricultural output, with around 90 percent of the produce exported.
Responding to the viral media reports, Ireland's Department for Agriculture said the proposal was just a "modelling document".
A spokesperson said: "The paper referred to was part of a deliberative process – it is one of a number of modelling documents considered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and is not a final policy decision.
"As part of the normal work of government departments, various options for policy implementation are regularly considered."
In March, Elon Musk sent another sign of support to the global farming industry in response to a video posted by a Twitter user of a farmer protest in Belgium.
I’m super pro climate, but we definitely don’t need to put farmers out of work to solve climate change. Not at all.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 4, 2023
