According to a story by The Independent (article beyond paywall), in an odd development, a cat has been employed as an official at the San Francisco International Airport in the US to reassure anxious travellers.
The airport posted a picture of Duke Ellington Morris, a 14-year-old black and white cat, sporting a little pilot’s cap and a shirt collar, along with a tweet announcing his appointment to the “Wag Brigade”. The caption said, “Purrrease welcome our newest Wag Brigade member, Duke Ellington Morris!”
The Wag Brigade, which started off with a launch by the California airport in 2013, suggests to “bring trained animals to the airports to help sooth anxious travellers,” the report stated.
Prior to now, the programme had only been available for dogs, but as time went on, it was also made available for other trained animals, such as cats, rabbits, and even LilLou, the “world’s first therapy pig,” according to the BBC.
After passing its Animal Assisted Therapy (ATT) training and being selected based on temperament and behaviour, the San Francisco SPCA certifies the animals.
The animal was saved from a colony of stray cats in 2010, the article said. A mother and her five-year-old daughter adopted him and worked to have him recognised as a therapy animal.
It’s not the first time, though, that animals have been used at airports to lift travellers’ spirits. The Cincinnati/Northern Ohio Airport deployed therapeutic miniature horses in 2017 in an effort to soothe anxious visitors entering the facility, according to the newspaper.
