Airport employs pig to calm down anxious passengers
San Francisco inernational airport has employed a pig named LiLou to calm down anxious guests waiting for their flights. The little creature dressed in a “Pet me” vest and a skirt is spinning around wiggling her tail making flyers feel better and bringing them delight.
Little LiLou has become a member of the welcoming airport brigade as part of the pet-therapy programm conducted in the airport. The aim is to better the customer experience related to their wait for connection flights. The pig that is of Julian breed has immediately become everyone’s favourite, airport teams and guests.
We have more than 300 dog, cat and rabbit volunteer teams, but LiLou is the first pig in our program. It’s wonderful to witness the surprise and delight that LiLou brings to people during therapy visits,” San Francisco SPCA Animal Assisted Therapy Manager, Dr Jennifer Henley said.
Pet-therapy is popular among American airports. It is deployed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and San Jose airports.
Pet-therapy in India may also bring its fruit
In today’s situation when endless lines have become a daily routine in India due to the well-known currency reform, pet-therapy may be a soothing measure. Standing in a line is usually not a pleasant time pass. And recently it has turned into something inevitable and at times irritating.
In order to bring down the degree of anxiety in lines to atm machines and in banks the pet-therapy may be an effective way. Just imagine. You are waiting for your turn to withdraw some money (that is now may take a couple of hours). Some people are not very fast in dealing with atm machines. People start to grumble expressing their discontent. This negative mood spreads all over the line.
And suddenly you see a cute cat, rabit, dog or a pig neatly dressed and suggesting to pet it. Nice, isn’t it? All the negative emotions will immediately disappear and will be rplaced with the delight and surprise.