How bird flu could threaten cow cuddling

STORY: Cow cuddling, thanks to social media, has become all the rage.

::Monee, Illinois

Visitors pay farmers to snuggle a half-ton heifer.

Sometimes it’s a city-dweller looking for some good old country fun, while others just find it therapeutic.

“The cow cuddling has taken over.”

But the cute practice carries a new risk.

The US Department of Agriculture recently confirmed bird flu in dairy herds in nine states.

And officials are urging farmers to limit outside visitors as much as possible.

Any restrictions could pose economic trouble for small family farms that rely on cow-cuddling and other agritourism practices to provide a financial lifeline.

Luz and Dan Klotz are the owners of Luz Farms in Illinois.

:: Luz Klotz, farmer

“So, my daughter, Star, brought us an article and said, ‘Mom, you need to do this.’ And it was an article that said something about it is very popular in the UK. So, I read the article and I said, ‘Who the heck is going to want to pay to hug a cow?’ She says, ‘Mom, try it. You never know, it might work.’ I said, ‘Well, alright.’

One of their customers, Joey Pachl, used this method to invite his girlfriend to their high school prom.

I paid $75 for an hour-long cow cuddling session.

“I’m the one that keeps the books and everything. I said, ‘Look, $75 pays for one round bale of hay.’ I said we got to look at it that way. So, every person that hugs a cow pays for a bale of hay for the week.”

And it’s not just cow cuddling.

From yoga classes with baby goats to feeding baby piglets, more than 28,000 US farms offered agritourism or recreational services of some sort in 2022.

It generated more than $1.2 billion, according to USDA data.

Such revenue streams are key to many small farms across the country.

But public health experts are concerned about bird flu, which has recently spread from migratory birds to dozens of species globally.

Scientists say outbreak is likely more widespread across America’s more than 26,000 licensed dairy farms based

on findings of H5N1 particles in some milk samples.

Government officials say the risk of human infection is low.

But they are urging cattle and dairy farmers to limit outside visitors as much as possible.

Cow-cuddling hosts say they take steps to ensure the safety of visitors and their animals.

:: Dan Klotz, Farmer

“I can go out there and I do every day, lay with them and be with them and hug them and get kisses from them. Two of them are trained to give kisses on command. And when I do that, I cannot explain in words just how it makes me feel. It’s just exclamation points and all these emojis that people use.”

Klotz hopes the cow-cuddling trend continues:

“I want to be in this rocket ship, and I want to ride this magic carpet ride until it ends. Till it ends. And right now, I’m flying high and mighty man. That’s all I could say.”