(KRON) — Over the course of Ken Wayne’s reports called “Flying Tails,” we have seen how pilots move rescued animals from bad situations to sanctuaries where they can get a second chance.

All of the animals he’s flown were here in California.

Kuwait City is 7,700 miles from the Bay Area.

“They dump their cats there thinking it’s safe for them but it’s not,” said one Kuwaiti woman.

This woman is making the rounds at a place known where former pets are dumped.

“If the cats are sick or skinny they either still sell them of throw them in the garbage to die,” she said.

She says young men often show up to pick up these cast off pets.

“To either use them for dog fighting or to sell them at the Friday markets where they put them inside very very small cage.” The situation is no better for dogs.

Animal activists in Kuwait are trying to change the cultural attitude here toward pets.

They feed the animals and take them in for care and try to get them new homes.

That’s where Redwood City cat rescue volunteer Nicole Jacque comes in.

“There are no animal shelters. There are no real kind of formal rescues. Just grass roots efforts,” she said. Nicole and her Kuwaiti rescuers took 51 cats to the Kuwait airport for the long flight to America.

After landing at LAX, volunteers took the cats to Santa Monica airport where Ken Wayne met them and we started to load up.

This guy named Casper showed the most spunk.

“It will be an uphill battle but I think the great hope here is that there is this sort of youth movement of people that are concerned about animals,” Jacque said.

On the ground at San Carlos Airport, the cats were readied for the last leg of their international odyssey.

The short drive to the Nine Lives Foundation in Redwood City.

About half of the 51 cats have been adopted and another dozen are in foster homes.

That leaves a dozen still available for adoption.

You can contact the Nine Lives Foundation in Redwood City to find out more.

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