San Francisco airport has therapy PIG, rabbit and dogs

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) offers nervous flyers therapy animals, such as a pig and a rabbit, to help calm them down. 

The program, known as the Wag Brigade, debuted in 2013 and the airport partnered with the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to bring certified emotional distress animals into the airport. 

Among their gaggle of cuties, includes a pig named LiLou, a 34-pound rabbit named Alex, and several dogs. 

The program originally only included dogs until 2016, when LiLou and Alex were added to the family. 

Each animal was chosen for their temperament, as they must deal with the high stress and movement of an airport. 

'We do meet a lot of people here in the airport who have never met a dog, who've never pet a dog,' Jennifer Kazarian, who runs the program, told AXIOS. 'As a child might do, they walk right up to the dog and try to stick a finger in the eyeball or in the mouth, or just grab a tail or an ear. So we need to make sure that [the animal is] going to be okay.'

She calls the pack of animals the 'unicorns of therapy animals.' 

Each animal works a two-hour shift a week and travelers can find them wandering through various terminals wearing 'pet me' vests. Travelers can oftentimes figure out where the animals are by following the program's Instagram page.