People are being warned not to kiss cows in a bizarre new Internet challenge

In bizarre news of the day, people are being warned not to take part in the latest online challenge encouraging users to kiss cows.

Yep, you might think it would go without saying that french kissing a cow isn’t really a good idea, but you know, people.

According to the Daily Mail the bonkers trend seems to have originated when a Swiss app called Castl launched the #KuhKussChallenge ('Cow Kiss Challenge'), urging users in Switzerland and other German-speaking countries to kiss cows (with or without tongues) to raise money for charity.

But now the Austrian government has issued an official warning describing the craze as a “dangerous nuisance.”

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In a statement, Austrian Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Koestinger pointed out that as well as being a “dangerous mischief”, cows with calves could become aggressive.

“Pastures and meadows are not petting zoos - actions like these could have serious consequences,” she said.

“Negligent handling of Austrian pastures has led to serious accidents in the past,” Köstinger said, according to a translation of a tweet. “I don’t understand a challenge of this kind!”

It isn’t exactly how the stunt raises money for charity, but charity or not, kissing cows really isn’t a good idea.

It isn’t the first time a bizarre challenge has lit up the Internet

Earlier this year the cheese throwing challenge took over social media feeds, and that followed the 48-hour challenge and the Bird-box challenge which both came with parental warnings.

Not all social media trends come with the ‘dangerous’ tag, however, earlier this year the microwave challenge, which saw people attempting to turn like a microwave turntable, took over TikTok feeds.

And the Matilda Challenge) fell into the more light-hearted category too.