JFK is opening a $48 million luxury terminal for pets

Paradise 4 Paws

John F. Kennedy International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world not only for humans, but for animals too. Every year, more than 70,000 animals pass through the busy New York airport.

Up until now, those animals have been staying at the Vetport, a privately owned veterinarian shelter for traveling animals. But that shelter is soon going to get an upgrade - a big one.

In 2016, JFK is going to open "the ARK," a new 178,000-square-foot terminal exclusively for animals. This will be the first terminal exclusively for animals in the US, costing $48 million to build.

Though the ARK is intended to act as a quarantine and boarding facility, it's actually going to be a sort of luxury hotel for animals.

Ark Development LLC

Developer Racebook Capital is touting the ARK as the "world's only privately owned animal terminal and USDA-approved, full-service, 24-hour, airport quarantine facility for import and export of horses, pets, birds and livestock," according to CNN.

Dogs will have a 20,000-square-foot luxury "resort" run by the company Paradise 4 Paws with flat-screen TVs, a bone-shaped swimming pool, massage therapy, and "pawdicures." Cats will get their own trees to climb, according to the AP. There are even webcams in the suites where owners can maintain some contact with their pets.

Ark Development LLC

Horses, cows, and other animals also have their own specially customized areas with private stalls and showers. There will be a holding pen for goats, pigs, and sheep, as well as a space dedicated to giving penguins "mating privacy," according to Entrepreneur.

A veterinary hospital system will be in place as well.

"The animal terminal will set new international airport standards for comprehensive veterinary, kenneling and quarantine services," John J. Cuticelli Jr., Founder of Ark Development LLC and Racebrook Chairman, said in a statement.

Ark Development LLC

The ARK plans to make money by charging pet owners, just like a hotel would. Dog owners will have to pay $100 per night to board their pets in the dog resort. Other prices have not yet been confirmed.