There’s something about animals that many humans find therapeutic.
Well, maybe not a grizzly bear charging out of the tree line, but lots of other animals.
Many people find animals so calming that they have been incorporated into formal therapy programs.
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Dog therapy is probably one of the most well-known, whether it be formalized therapy sessions or bringing them to airports to calm down frazzled travellers.
Equine therapy is also a thing, and we’ve written in this paper about the healing power that many people attribute to hanging around horses.
And then there’s goat yoga, which I must admit brings out the skeptic in me, but hey, whatever works, I suppose.
Now there’s cow-hugging therapy, or cow cuddling, as it is called on a farm in Newfoundland and Labrador.
CTV ran a story earlier this year about Chloe, a Guernsey cow on Lester’s Farm Chalet near St. John’s.
People pay $20 to spend 20 minutes with Chloe and other cows on the farm.
Visitors can feed them, groom them or even lie beside them.
The farm decided to cash in on this new trend in August and say the cows have been a hit ever since.
The new sideline has brought in extra income for the Lesters, but they say it is also satisfying to help people reconnect with nature.
“I’m a big believer that people have to get their hands dirty, get their hands back in the soil and experience the positive side of agriculture,” Jim Lester told CTV.
He also thinks cows are the perfect animal to help get the job done.
“They’re probably a bit underappreciated for what they can offer for the human soul,” he said.
“Cows are one of the older domesticated livestock species.… They’ve been around humans a long time.”
Based on the reactions of those who have spent money to cuddle with the cows, he might be on to something.
“People come and they are floored that they can just get to sit down and crouch down with the cows, let alone like, lean up against them” said Sophia Vallis, who worked with the farm this summer.
It’s not just happening in Newfoundland. A Google search finds many farms across the continent doing the same thing.
I do wonder, though, what the cows think about it all.
