This morning before going to work, I caught a few moments of Good Morning America. One of the segments featured a pair of monkeys employed as waiters at a tavern in Japan called Kayabukiya. I’m not entirely sure what all goes on in the tavern except that the pair passes out hot towels to the customers as they order their first drink. No word on their rate of pay but they are tipped generously in boiled soya-beans. According to the report on GMA, many people have complimented the simians and noted that they are better than some human servers they have had previously. The names of the pair are Fuku-chan and Yat-chan. But check out the link to see the monkeys in action. I wonder if the owners of Kayabukiya are breaking any animal labor laws… cruelty to animals and such. Not sure if PETA operates worldwide.
Probably no different than dogs employed by a police K-9 unit really. Original I have to say though. I would say it’s only cruelty if they use cruel methods to train them or otherwise treat them cruelly. Just having them hand out towels isn’t cruelty IMHO.
Very true… my thoughts exactly, but one never knows.
Hmmm… how hot are the towels? 🙂
I’m sure PETA would consider it cruelty, but then they consider keeping zoo animals captive as cruelty. I think they do operate world-wide but probably for only very extreme causes – hopefully they wouldn’t consider this one of those… but I don’t know for sure about their reach.