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Traveler's Edition
  •   < 1 min read

Los Angeles Airport has been offering free therapy sessions in their terminal for two years, their passengers can see the airport’s canine shrinks to ease their flying nerves.

These special fluffy PUPs (also known as Pets Unstressing Passengers) wander the airport’s post-security screening areas. These dogs were even honored by the Los Angeles City Council last month for their upstanding service.

“When traveling grows stressful, when passengers feel weary, or restless, our four-legged, tail-wagging volunteers dutifully answer the call,” noted Councilman Bob Blumenfield at the ceremony.

Surprisingly, animals have been making up an important subsection of airport staffing for a long time, it seems, some jobs are just better suited for the animal kingdom rather than humans.

Falcons have often been used to prevent the amount of bird strikes to aircrafts. In the US alone, there are nearly 14,000 bird strikes each year, most of the time the damage is minor, like exterior surface damage. Although bird strikes do have the potential to cause major damage, like total loss of an aircraft.

Falcons are used to direct birds away from planes during the critical moments of takeoff and landing. Using falcons is the most humane way to manage the problem without killing any birds, the falcon trainers are using the predator-prey relationship that already exists in the wild, and using it for their own benefit.

Goats have also been used as landscapers, llamas as bodyguards, mice as the recruit agents and bees as anti-drug wardens.

IMG: Michael @ NW Lens / Flickr cc.

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