Do you remember the story about the rise of professional cuddling establishments I published a couple of months ago? Of course you do, especially because it was all over the media anyway. Well, in the meantime it turns out that cuddles have become the latest Evil To Banish™ in the absolutely civil, free and progressive United States of America.
A place called Snuggle house in Madison, Wisconsin, has been forced to close downfor good just one month after it opened and serviced about 50 happy customers. The manager stated through his attorney that he was continually harassed by local institutions, convinced it was a front for a brothel or some other morally questionable endeavor.
Even if Snuggle house was really about cuddling and nothing else, the city’s unfounded outrage towards the business manifested in countless ways: from an effort to delay the opening to absurd police sting operations, from repeated policy reviews and inspections to ad hoc ordinances. While no actual complaints against the place were ever made, the hostility proved too much to endure for a no-profit business that was born out of the harrowing need for a caring touch when the ex-owner was hospitalized with Lyme disease.
The smug declarations of city attorney Jennifer Zilavy about «protecting the health and safety of the community» and of police Lt. McCaw, who flatly said «that’s just what we do, for drugs, bars, anywhere» are downright scary. Science has long proved how important for mental health physical touch is: what sort of people can obsess so much on negating the chance for it to their fellow citizens?