Now arriving at JFK: dogs from the Mideast, horses from Iceland

When the cargo plane touched down on the tarmac at Kennedy International Airport on Friday afternoon, a cacophonous barking could be heard coming from the hold.

Maad Abu-ghazalah stood on the runway below, anxiously waiting. There were exactly 69 dogs onboard, most of whom came from his shelter in the West Bank. The hold opened, and a set of eyes caught his through a crate door: It was Lucas.

Then came Jimmy, Carlos, Farouk, Zoe, all of whom Abughazalah had cared for at Daily Hugz, the rescue facility he set up in Asira ash-shamaliya, outside his hometown, Nablus. The dogs were mostly abandoned. Many were feral, and some had lost legs after being hit by cars.

The shelter had been “like paradise,” Abu-ghazalah said. But in December, as conditions in the West Bank deteriorated amid the Israel-hamas war, he decided he could no longer keep it running. So he called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International. And the SPCA called the ARK.

The ARK at JFK is something Noah himself could not have imagined: a privately owned, round-the-clock operation at New York’s largest airport built to accommodate a range of guests with a variety of needs, from purebred racehorses to exotic zoo animals.

The facility, which encompasses 14 acres and 178,000 square feet, prepares animals to fly around the world, making sure they are calm, traveling at comfortable temperatures and equipped with enough food and water. It also receives animals when they arrive in New York, quarantining them if necessary and preparing them for the next steps in their journeys.

Lori Kalef, the director of programs for SPCA International, said that in the seven years the ARK has operated out of Kennedy, 90% of the 1,300 dogs and cats she has rescued from overseas have come through the facility. On Friday morning, a group of workers and volunteers from her organization gathered around a conference table at the ARK’S offices to discuss crates and harnesses. They had encountered many logistical challenges as they worked to move the dogs from the West Bank, and the flight had been delayed several times.

But then the call came in that the dogs would be arriving soon, and the group walked anxiously toward the ARK’S “pet oasis,” a full-service kennel for cats, dogs and the occasional goat. Kalef played “The Final Countdown” out loud on her phone.

Once the dogs landed, they were brought directly to the oasis, where all 69 of them — 10 from a shelter in Bethlehem, and the rest from Daily Hugz — would rest for the night before continuing on to their new homes.

Abu-ghazalah, who lives in

PHOTOS BY MAANSI SRIVASTAVA — THE NEW YORK TIMES A worker takes care of Icelandic ponies last month at ARK, the animal care facility at the Kennedy International Airport. After the ponies were unloaded from a cargo plane, handlers at the ARK secured them in stalls at the facility’s import barn.

Maad Abu-ghazalah, owner of Daily Hugz rescue sanctuary in Israel’s West Bank, greets one of the dogs he rescued at the airport in New York on March 15. The ARK is a 14-acre facility.