Cats on a plane: Idaho Falls Animal Shelter relocates cats to Spokane, Wa

IDAHO FALLS, IDAHO (KIFI) - 42 cats made their way from the Idaho Falls Animal Shelter to a rescue in Spokane, Washington via plane Tuesday.

The SpokAnimal shelter is making room for the group after the City of Idaho Falls Animal Shelter became overwhelmed with kittens.

The operation started early this morning with the cats, mostly kittens, being loaded into prepared crates.

Organizer and volunteer Krista Stafford told Local News 8 about the amount of work that goes on beforehand.

"It's two weeks worth of extreme paperwork that needs to be done on just the human end, let alone the animals having to get health certificates. A veterinarian has to check every single animal and and certify them of being healthy and being able to fly, [the] veterinarian has to be accredited in order to do so. And then anybody that's over four months old has to have a rabies vaccine with a certificate as well. And all of this has to be done in order to fly and in order to cross state lines to go to a rescue."

After all the preparation to get 42 cats to a new home, the Idaho Falls Animal Shelter will still have over 100 cats available to adopt. The shelter says the best way to prevent an influx of cats is to spay and neuter your pets.