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Austrians Warned By Experts To Stop Kissing Cows As Part Of Bizarre Viral Challenge

Lisa McLoughlin

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| Last updated 

Austrians Warned By Experts To Stop Kissing Cows As Part Of Bizarre Viral Challenge

Featured Image Credit: Credit: Pexels

Austrian officials have issued a warning over a bizarre trend that sees people kissing cows as part of a social media challenge.

The strange trend has been promoted by Swiss app Castl, which launched its incredibly weird Cow Kiss Challenge to raise money for charity.

However, the craze has been slammed by politicians and farming officials, who claim that the 'KuhKussChallenge' could lead to people getting trampled to death by distressed cows.

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Castl has been encouraging people in Switzerland, Germany and Austria to kiss cows "with or without tongues" for charity since launching on Wednesday.

As a result of their challenge, the public have been sharing clips of themselves approaching cows in their paddocks, before kissing the animals.

In the YouTube video of people performing the challenge, one man is seen holding a bunch of flowers as he puckers up to the cow in a number of attempts to get it to 'kiss' him.

Credit: Pexels
Credit: Pexels
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Tyrolean Chamber of Agriculture president Josef Hechenberger told Austrian newspaper Kurier: "The fact that our animals should be used for social media hype, I think, is very questionable, especially with regard to possible injuries."

Elsewhere, Austrian agricultural minister Elisabeth Kostinger said on Twitter on Thursday: "Actions like these are dangerous nonsense. I have not the slightest understanding for a challenge of this kind!"

The politician added that while cows "are basically not dangerous animals, pastures are not a petting zoo [and] actions such as these can have serious consequences.

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"Mother cows protect their calves and become aggressive if you do not behave properly."

In February, an Austria court ruled that a farmer had to pay damages to the family of a German woman killed by one of his cows while hiking in 2014.

The farmer was ordered to pay £158,000 compensation to the hiker's husband and son by a court in Innsbruck.

Topics: Life News, Real

Lisa McLoughlin
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