Capybara is the Vietnamese name for water rat, the largest rat in the world today. This species is famous for the title of "Miss Congeniality" or "excellent swimmer" in the animal world. Capybara eats plants, often lives in groups, adults can weigh up to 68kg.
Recently, a coffee shop in Ha Hoi hamlet (Tran Hung Dao ward, Hanoi) attracted attention for offering an up-close experience with capybara.
Visitors can feed, pet the soft fur and take pictures with the capybara. However, the restaurant encourages children under 12 years old to come here with adult supervision at all times, and should be especially careful when petting the animals.
The restaurant limits the time for capybara experiences to 25 minutes per session. When entering the restaurant, customers need to buy an entrance ticket. The ticket price of 120,000 VND/person includes a drink and a portion of hay food for the capybara. If you order more water and food for the capybara, you need to pay an additional fee of 20,000 VND.
Despite offering authentic capybara experiences to customers, especially children, this cafe is still controversial.
Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Huyen (34 years old, Hanoi) shared her experience after visiting the cafe: "My first impression was that the shop was quite crowded. The next feeling was that the ticket price was quite high. Buying a combo, my 2 children and I received 3 bottles of tea, I thought it should at least be fruit juice, or tea made by the shop... to be worth the money spent".
Meanwhile, Ms. Huyen Anh (39 years old, Hanoi) was quite disappointed when she brought her two children to visit the capybara at the cafe. She said: "I spent a lot of money on tickets but the time to see and play with the capybaras was only 25 minutes. Besides, the restaurant only has 3 capybaras, they have to "entertain guests" all day so they look quite tired and scared.
Although their living environment has been decorated to be comfortable, it is still not a natural environment. Capybaras have to live under the light of electric lights and the noise of visitors from morning to night. Therefore, I feel quite worried about their current and future health status."
Although the dog and cat cafe model is very popular, the business of adding an interactive cafe model with capybara still faces mixed opinions.
Some argue that capybaras should live in open spaces with lots of trees and water instead of air-conditioned rooms. Many people question the animals’ hygiene and health.
Previously, a pet cafe in Ho Chi Minh City also added an interactive room with capybara next to the room with cats, a dog playground...
