Sending a dog from Oz to Ireland

Maccattack

Anyone had any experience sending a pooch home?

Can anyone tell me whats involved?

ballooba

Get an EU pet passport. Aussie vets can give the necessary innoculations.

The Aussie

Yeh mate, about 14months ago we brought a Springer Spaniel (mine) and a Papilion (the wifes) back from Brisbane we used http://www.dogtainers.com.au/ and delt with some chick called Kate, they can advise you with all the shots needed at specific dates out from the flight ie, 3 months out, 1 month out and so on, where the vet will give you documation that you need to keep, you will certainly need to get the wee fella micro chipped and buy a crate, that is large enough for the dog which is easier just to get through dogtainers as i could not find one much cheaper after a good few hours looking and they have them in stock

Its a whole lot easier and cheaper to shift a dog to Ireland than it is to get one shifted to Oz with quarantine and stuff, the worst thing about the whole quarantine lark was the dog came out of Eastern Creek near Sydney sicker than when he went in 6 weeks earlier, anyway what sort of dog is it your moving...

The Aussie

Forgot to add there is no quarantine (holding period) from Oz to Ireland which is handy and dogtainers pick up the dog from your door.

ballooba

Is the process simpler for cats? Because I looked up the procedures for quarantine and vaccines etc. and it didn't seem like it would be necessary to involve a third party. Are those dogtainer people expensive?

IH77

The Aussie wrote: »

we used http://www.dogtainers.com.au/

We also used dogtainers to bring our dog from OZ to Ireland some 5 years ago, and got a pet passport for him, plus all the shots some 3-6 months in advance. We had to collect him from Heathrow (no quarantine) and drive him across to Ireland.

The Aussie

ballooba wrote: »

Are those dogtainer people expensive?

Had to check with the wife, she says about au$5000 with all the vets bills. for the Springer which weighs 22kg and the Papillion 9kg (not a purebred)

But to be honest i have forgotten, ive never seen money fly out of a bank account like it before in those 6 week leading up to leaving with 2 dogs, 2 tickets, a fully loaded 20 foot container with a classic car inside and getting the house ready to rent out, im still shake my head about the cost...

Zambia

We got quoted some crazy figure for the cat. In the end we rehomed the cat with a friend of ours Mum. The wife took a while getting over that.

Now we have three here... yes three.

ballooba

Zambia232 wrote: »

We got quoted some crazy figure for the cat. In the end we rehomed the cat with a friend of ours Mum. The wife took a while getting over that.

Now we have three here... yes three.

We were planning on transporting my girlfriends two cats to Ireland without third party assistance. It just doesn't seem that complicated. The only thing we hadn't thought of yet was the actual air freight.

The Sweeper

The air freight.. and the fact that the airline's luggage hold isn't heated. And the cats can't have food or water while in the hold. And that they may not be on the same flight as you because regulations may not allow it. So if one gets stuck somewhere in Asia, there's no third party company there to make sure it isn't left on the tarmac in the sun in its cage for hours... Or left in a luggage room with no food or water overnight...

/edit to be more clear.

Some airlines do not allow more than one animal in the luggage hold at once. Some airlines will tell you that they accept animals as freight, then refuse to take live cargo at the last minute, so your animal is left at the boarding airport. There can be delays and problems along the route. If your animal is delayed on a Friday there's a problem because staffing may be different at a weekend.

You don't pay for people like Dogtainers and Jetpets to ship your animals because you can't do it yourself - you pay them because they know the airlines, they know their business, they'll ensure your animal is transported in a heated, ventilated luggage hold so it'll be comfortable for the journey, and if something goes wrong, they have people at the different airports, contacts and agents all over the world, who can physically find and care for your animal in the bumhole of nowhere - and you can't do that yourself.

I know a cat breeder who recently shipped a juvenile cat to a new owner in Belfast (the breeder is in Sydney) - About 14 hours after the cat left the breeder in Sydney, the Icelandic volcano closed European air space. I can tell you - she was bloody happy she'd hired a shipping company to look after her cat. When she finally found out where he was, the girl on the agency desk at the airport in London (not an airport the cat was ever supposed to see) was feeding him and stroking him through the bars of his transport crate, which was on her desk, and she told the breeder he'd been chirpily chatting to anyone who came up to ask about him. He was also due to be boarded overnight and vet checked before being transported to Belfast on the first available suitable flight.

That's what you pay these guys for.