Life can be hard – but wouldn’t it be easy if you can just sip coffee and cuddle with a Pig? His café is making it happen!
Life has its hard moment and sometimes you just need a full escape. According to the data, 37 percent of respondents in the U.S. indicated that they were more anxious in 2023 than they were the year before. This is a decrease from 2020 when 62 percent reported being more anxious than in year 2019. Sometimes you just need a little coffee and a cuddle with a piglet at this cafe. What started as a rough idea has turned into an opportunity for people to have a squealing good time. And to relax and smile.
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Cuddling with a dog, cat or even a piglet leads to the release of the oxytocin, the happiness hormone, The hormone relates to feelings of trust and empathy and can contribute to a strong human-animal bond. Both the animal and human receive benefits from the interaction.
Piglets have gained a lot of popularity, especially with celebrities adopting them as pets. In fact, they’re even a growing niche about bringing the cuties home. But in Japan, piglets have been considered in a different light, so this group decided to offer something new. In 2019, they decided to embark on a journey to introduce cuddling with pigs to the public.
“We would like Japanese people to feel more familiar with the animal and eventually become a beloved member of the family,” shares the founder. The idea of the cafe started out as a Camp-fire proposal, a crowdfunding site similar to Kickstarter, which pulled in over twice the amount of money that was initially asked for.
Since their first cafe, they have opened opened 9 additional MiPig Cafe locations. People are loving it and is growing similar to the kitten cafés in North America. Japan is one of the leading countries when it comes to animal cafes, having spots where you can have a coffee surrounded by owls, dogs, hedgehogs and stuffed animals.
Though they have a few different names (micropigs, miniature pigs, teacup pigs), they aren’t really miniature, rather they are different bread of pigs. Most are simply potbellied pigs that are naturally smaller than domestic farm pigs. The latter can weigh several hundred kilos. Micropigs when young, however, usually weigh around 30 kilos
Studies have suggested pigs can outsmart dogs and even chimpanzees. They’ve been observed completing mazes and recognising symbols, and they have excellent long term memory.
They’re also empathetic animals which learn from one another and have complex social lives, with some studies showing them play fighting with one another in much the same way as dogs do. So why not try?
