Regarded as the world’s first ever luxury terminal for animals, The ARK will welcome cows and horses in “climate-controlled stalls with showers”, whereas dogs will rest in luxury hotel suites with flat-screen TVs. Livestock will be greeted with Hay-lined stalls, and even penguins will be given their own special corner of the terminal to mate in privacy.
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Scheduled to open in 2016, this “quarantine facility” is a $48 million project that will be sprawled across 16,500 square metres and will even see animals such as sloths and aardvarks. From here, they’ll head to barns, cages, racetracks, shows and competition venues in the United States and overseas. It’s common for animals arriving in JFK to be held at the airport for a short period, sometimes up to a few days, to ensure they are not infected with contagious diseases. Globe-trotting canines can lounge alongside a bone-shaped pool or go to the spa, where they have their pick between message therapy or “pawdicures”. Pet owners will be able to monitor their pooches through webcams. For cats, there will be trees to climb. And all animals will have access to a 24-hour clinic run by Cornell University’s veterinary college. ARK will also act as a quarantine facility; now horses, for example, need to travel 80 miles north of the airport for their typical three-day quarantine.
“The design allows planes to taxi directly to the building, so horses can be transported in a seamless fashion that reduces stress”, she said.
As far as the challenge of managing animal waste is concerned, the desginers have come up with the idea of a “poo chute”, a floor that is appropriately angled to collect animal waste into a container.
JFK already handles most animal transportation in the United States, but airports in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Juan also have animal-moving facilities. Typically flying a dog from New York to London comes to about $1,000, not including the crate, and vet certifications.
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Construction of the new terminal is under way on the former site of Cargo Building 78, which has been vacant at JFK for almost a decade.
