Animal Cafés: where to find them

The latest arrivals are the Mipig Café, the bars where, while you sip an Italian cappuccino, you are in the company of a cheerful and fragrant little pig (the word miping in Japanese means little pig). We are in Japan, precisely in Saitama, an industrial city not far from Tokyo, and we are in one of the more than 2 bars where animals of various species keep guests company.

ANIMAL CAFE

The first formula of a bar with animal companionship was launched in Osaka in 2004 (in Taiwan there had already been a first experiment in 1998) and it was a Neko Café, where the company arrived from catsThe customer could pet them and play with them, but was absolutely forbidden to give them anything to eat, to protect the feline's hygiene and health. The formula worked so well in a country where the general well-being was contrasted by an enormous solitude and the highest percentage of suicides in the world, which began studies to further investigate the benefits of Neko Café. And alongside the improvement in mood and the decrease in stress., the benefits for the cardiovascular system of petting a cat while drinking any soft drink were also discovered. Meanwhile, many Neko Café They took advantage of this to provide paid entrance fees, regardless of the cost of a single drink.

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ANIMAL CAFE IN ITALY

The success of the Japanese model led to the opening of the Animal Café throughout Europe. First to Vienna (2021), then to Paris e Madrid (2013) and finally also in Italy, Turin, with the MiaGola Café and then with the Neko Café. Today the Animal Café They are present in almost all the most important Italian cities and usually combine a passion for animals with vegetarian and vegan cuisine. Obviously, there is a code of conduct that applies to both managers and customers, with the assumption that never disturb the animals, respect them and do not subject them to particular stress. In Japan, for example, the manager who leaves an animal Anyone who remains at the customer's disposal for more than six hours is fined, and quite heavily. The same applies to customers who are mute if they kiss or hug the animals too vigorously, or even if they simply offer unwanted food.

The images are taken from the Facebook page of MiaGola Coffee of Turin

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