A farm sanctuary in California is offering people the chance to invite a llama to make a cameo appearance in their next Zoom meeting.
Sweet Farm, which is based in Half Moon Bay, launched its “Goat 2 Meeting” initiative last month.
Those wishing to take part can choose from inviting either a llama, goat, cow or another farm animal onto their live video call.
The idea is to simply provide some light relief during the coronavirus outbreak, while also raising awareness of the negative impacts of industrialised farming.
So far, Sweet Farm has facilitated more than 100 calls with farm animals and received more than 500 requests.
The schedule for calls is now filled until June.
The prices for an animal cameo start at $65 for a 20-minute appearance on a call with up to six people.
This goes up to $100 for those who would like an animal to appear on a corporate call for 10 minutes with unlimited participants.
People can also pay $750 for a VIP virtual tour of Sweet Farm.
Proceeds will go towards Sweet Farm’s efforts to rescue farm animals and educate the public about industrialised farming.
Nate Salpeter, co-founder of Sweet Farm, told CNN.“After the coronavirus happened and shelter in place went into effect, we had to completely rethink the way we were driving revenue and executing our mission.
“Our board member, Jon Azoff, came up with the idea and said, ‘You know, we’re having so many company meetings and happy hours but they’re all boring. What if we could get a goat or llama on the call’?”
Salpeter added that with animals, everything is “totally unscripted”.
He went on that the animal Zoom calls will life people’s spirits when they need it most.
“At the time same, we’re teaching people a serious lesson,” he continued.
“There is so much news about things like the coronavirus and swine flu that come out of the way people treat animals.
“We’ve been working for years and years to show people that this is a byproduct of the way we treat them.”
