WaPoo, Therapy llamas patrol Portland airport to relieve passenger stress
The Portland International Airport in Oregon understands holiday travel is stressful. So this season, it invited a few specialists to help passengers manage their cortisol levels. Over three visits this month, Beni and Prince doled out their brand of medicine.
“You can hug them close, and their thick fiber is so soft,” Lori Gregory said of her llamas. “They’re just very unique animals compared to most other therapy animals. They got the total package.”
Airports around the globe use a variety of methods to inject some Zen into one of the busiest travel periods of the year. They decorate their halls in holiday lights, host carolers and concerts, and bring in therapy dogs for group canine counseling.
Portland does all of the above. True to the city’s quirky spirit, it also invites local camelids to the airport to canoodle with passengers. That’s where Gregory, president and founder of Mountain Peaks Therapy Llamas & Alpacas, comes in.
“PDX has an ongoing partnership with various therapy animal programs,” said Allison Ferre, media relations manager with the Port of Portland, which operates the airport. “So this year, when we were bringing back holiday concessions programing, we just thought, “Who better to lead that parade than the llamas and alpacas?”
. . .
Gregory said llamas are often misunderstood. Contrary to animals-behaving-badly videos, the trainable pack animals that hail from South America do not typically spit, jump on people or bite. In fact, they only have teeth on the bottom front of their mouths.
“I think their PR has not been as positive as the alpacas,” she said of their smaller cousins.
Well, better than Grizzly Bears, I suppose.
H/T Althouse
Oregon is the Beaver State, so they should have therapy beavers.
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