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Credit: Patrick O'connor
A Kiwi farmer who filmed himself pushing his face up against a cow's bottom and getting covered in faecal matter said he often spends large parts of his work day covered in it anyway.
Rakaia farmer Patrick O'Connor has come under fire for his video, which shows him essentially "motorboating" the cow's excrement-covered backside before chugging back an energy drink.
In the video posted on the Kiwi Az Bro Facebook page, 22-year-old O'Connor exclaims: "You know it's Friday, let's get f***ing s**t faced."
The video has been shared around the world and received more than 633,000 views.
Already Kiwis have been condemning his actions on Facebook.
"Love how everyone's having a laugh over this but in reality that's disgusting. You shouldn't treat a cow that way. Get some respect," posted Darcy Wheeler.
Sharn Hoff-Higgins shared her feelings of disgust after watching the footage.
"Is that what people desperate for likes do these days? That's so sad."
O'Connor is not deterred by the comments - on the contrary he is delighted at the attention it has received.
"I've always talked about going viral," he told the Herald.
O'Connor said he filmed the video as part of a "smash it back" challenge he had with his friends, where they would "smash back" some type of drink and post the video on a private Facebook page. This latest one was leaked onto a public page.
One day O'Connor saw a meme online of a girl whose face was covered in cow dung, and said to his friend that that could be his next smash it back video.
When he did the video, it was the last cow of the day and he had his phone in his hand, so decided to go for it.
"All the boys had a good laugh about it," he said.
"During normal milking I would get half my body covered in cow s*** anyway . . . if it's five o'clock in the morning and you're not paying attention and a cow coughs and s***s, you're covered in it."
O'Connor says he is 'shameless' about performing off-beat acts. Photo / via video
Right after the video, O'Connor got the high pressure hose and washed off his face until he was "clean as a whistle".
He said some of the faeces got into his mouth, but that was also a normal occurrence in his job, and warm faeces was better than cold.
It's not a welfare issue because it wouldn't have hurt the cow.
He did not expect the reaction his video got - it was leaked from the private smash it back group - but O'Connor said he was not embarrassed.
"I was reading some of the comments, people saying 'that's f***ing disgusting you sicko' ... people having a mare about it."
O'Connor did not believe there was an ethical issue with what he did, saying "it never even came into consideration".
"There was nothing cruel at all, I felt anyway. There was no sexual act .... no deviantness."
He said it was not something he'd done before, though he was "forever smashing back stuff". In one video he can be seen drinking milk out of a gumboot.
He was a fairly "shameless" person.
"You could pull my pants down in public and then I would find a way to embrace it."
Animal rights organisation SAFE spokesman Hans Kriek had not seen the video himself, but said it did not sound as if the cow was negatively effected.
"It's not a welfare issue because it wouldn't have hurt the cow," he said.
While the act didn't "sound nice", it was better than the cow living in poor conditions, Kriek said.
While Kriek noted people's comments about the act being disrespectful, he considered standard dairying practices of taking calves away from cows so the cows milk could be used was worse.
"I would argue that that's disrespectful," he said.
So far the video has had nearly 3000 shares, nearly 8000 comments, and nearly 4000 reactions.
