Kiss a cow for a good cause? This new internet challenge is causing controversy in Austria, where fatal accidents involving bovids and walkers are not uncommon and where the coexistence between tourism and mountain farming is a matter of state.
Launched on Wednesday by the Swiss site Castl aimed at a German-speaking public in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, the
"Such a challenge is really stupid and dangerous," reacted Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger, warning of the "serious consequences" it could have. The director of veterinary services in Tyrol, one of the main mountain breeding regions of the country, Josef Kössler, also stressed that it could be “very dangerous” to approach cows “that we do not know” , especially if accompanied by young.
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"I find it very worrying that we might want to use our animals to create buzz, in particular because of the risk of injury," noted the president of the Tyrolean Chamber of Agriculture, Josef Hechenberger, who solemnly called the site to "review its project".
The cohabitation between walkers and animals is one of the most sensitive subjects in the Alpine regions of Austria, where tourism and livestock farming constitute the two main sources of economic activity.
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In February, a court caused consternation by ordering a Tyrolean breeder to pay several hundred thousand euros in damages to the relatives of a German tourist killed in 2014 by a herd of suckler cows she had tried to cross with his dog.
The breeder appealed, a procedure closely followed by the Austrian Farmers' Federation according to which a confirmation of this judgment would mean "the end of our alpine pastures". To try to defuse the crisis, the Austrian government enacted in April a "code of good conduct" recommending in particular to walkers to avoid approaching cows on the mountain pastures. "Initiatives like this challenge run counter to our efforts to live together on the mountain pastures," lamented Elisabeth Köstinger on Thursday.
