Transporting dogs from Ireland to UK- Passport regulations

Inexile

muddypaws wrote: »

And there it is, pet dogs so yet again, greyhounds are being treated differently. I wonder then if I could state that my huskies are working dogs, not pets when I go over for rallies?

And to addd more confusion the dogs Im working with are retired greyhounds which go abroad for adoption as pets but sometimes are transported by a commercial transporter.

Im waiting for our transporter to get back re what he needs in the meantime I think I will just take to the sofa....

JustAThought

Last year I was looking to travel with my dog & did the rounds between Dept if Agriculture, Vets , kennel Club , Different ferry lines & Chunnel officials trying to get the rules straight; & I have to say it was a nightmare. Official Websites arn't/weren't up to date, customs would tell you " off the record" policies & everyone i spoke to -including vets & transport companies/officials could not give a definitive answer. So I got the passport & waited to travel.

Outcome -fido & I are " safe" & no risk of being impounded/fined.

The stages I went through in 2012 -
Vet had to get official pet passport from Dept Of Agriculture.
Vet has to scan & verify microchip & he has to transcribe it into the pet passport.
You have to provide photo & desc. of dog.
Vet has to verify it looks like the dog !

Dogs annual shots & booster has to be marked in & up to date.
Dog has to get rabies shot.

I think it is three weeks after the dog gets its rabies shot it has to go back to the vets for confirmation that that the rabies shot has " taken". So you can't just schedule the rabies shot & then travel .In 2012 the test for rabies for Ireland was sent to the UK for verification & the poor vet had to wait on the UK lab to send back confirmation. Only then could he complete the paperwork needed.Apparently no lab in Ireland does this service for our DofAg.

It was then ALL sent in together to the Irish D of Agriculture for them to make up the passport. It was supposed to take only 3 or 4 days for them to make it up -they then send it back to the vet ; who calls you & gives it to you.

It was a LOT of hassle & time - much more than I had figured in for my plans.

If you let the rabies injection lapse from one year to the time/year you need to travel, then you have to get the whole set of rabies shots re-done ; and the rabies test redone .

I was told in 2012 that for union reasons they were not checking on the Irish side, but that they could do spot checks on the UK side -& that the French were very strict because of illegal trafficking .

Looks like the French were way ahead of the possy.

Bit of a nightmare but with the amount of animals travelling in the back of vans around Europe if it keeps Ireland rabies free it will be worth it.
I hope.

There's a further hooha around worming & a vet test/check at the customs for that if you go into ( or was it out of!?) France ; but I can't remember those details anymore.

muddypaws

I spoke to DEFRA again today, to clarify the greyhound issue. No dogs are exempt, ALL dogs have to have the passport and rabies vaccination. He told me it is the EU that has insisted that they now implement it. There will be spot checks, not at all ports all the time, not on every ferry, but if you get stopped without one, dog will be seized, quarantined, you will be prosecuted and liable for all costs. So, its up to people themselves if they want to take the risk. We travel in a white van, and always get stopped anyway, never been asked for anything, but don't want to take the chance that we will be the ones that they hold up to the EU as an example that yes, they are implementing and catching people.

brrabus

A petition has been set up on behalf of Dog Rescue Centres in Ireland. Please sign and share as much as possible.

EU ruling threatens the future of Dog Rescue Organisations in Ireland - Petition

JustAThought

Youd be better to petition for financial support for rabies shots & additional boarding costs.

muddypaws

Took 4 of mine in today for their rabies vacc. While I was at the vet they had a phone call from someone that goes over to the UK a good bit with working dogs, also looking to book 4 in. The government are going to make a mint from this, selling the passports to vets.

brrabus

JustAThought wrote: »

Youd be better to petition for financial support for rabies shots & additional boarding costs.

Well at least there is some sort of petition has been started, something needs to be done about this, those who rescue in this country are going to suffer big style because and those who suffer at the end of the day are the animals. It is all so sad.

aonb

I turned the radio on to NEWSTALK today while driving, and missed the start of an article about this whole issue. The speaker was confirming that dogs travelling to UK (including rescue dogs being rehomed in UK) will have to have passport/microchip & rabies shot (even thought there is no rabies in UK or Ireland - as the speaker said, pointless) This ruling is demanded by the EU to have Ireland/UK in line with the rest of the EU ... seems mad that we cannot get an exception to the rabies shot requirement when both UK/Ireland are rabies free??? (p.s. the speaker said that rescues (Dog Trust specifically???) in Ireland will have to pay up about E900K to have the number of dogs that are being shipped to UK for rehoming, brought up to compliance)

inocybe

From what I've been reading it isn't a demand from the EU. It's a response from the British authorities to the sloppy control of dog movements by us.

However, over the last few months, on two different occasions, dogs supplied by commercial breeders in Ireland to clients in Great Britain were deemed to be illegally imported as they did not have the required paperwork and vaccination to show their compliance with EU law; on one of the occasions, a dog was seized from the client’s home and placed in quarantine for 4 weeks.

It's the breeders, and our own government who refuse to police them that I'm thanking for this. And it's the rescues who will suffer.

Toulouse

It's a disaster!

But the thing is from some of the feedback I've been seeing from those, not in the UK, but on the continent is that it's a good thing!

They really don't understand what rescues here are trying to deal with.

Surely they can come up with some kind of QA scheme that rescues sending dogs to the UK must adhere to rather than having to passport and rabies vax their dogs.

JustAThought

Rabies is rampant in the Philippines. They have whole hospitals & medical specialities dealing with it. It is incurable & kills people in the most horrible way. I certainly don't want this in the country as well as tB and leprosy -now both live & active in Ireland again.

muddypaws

JustAThought wrote: »

Rabies is rampant in the Philippines. They have whole hospitals & medical specialities dealing with it. It is incurable & kills people in the most horrible way. I certainly don't want this in the country as well as tB and leprosy -now both live & active in Ireland again.

I don't think you understand, it is the UK government that is implementing this change, not the Irish government, there are still no restrictions on dogs coming here from the UK, and the Dept of Ag have said that, spot checks will be carried out on dogs going to the UK from Ireland on the other side of the Irish Sea.

Bullseye1

I was speaking with someone who has been involved In rescues a is a Vetenary nurse. According to her the British authorities are fed up of us shipping our problem over to them. Is it the case that the a significant number of dogs reacued here are shipped to the UK.

muddypaws

Bullseye1 wrote: »

I was speaking with someone who has been involved In rescues a is a Vetenary nurse. According to her the British authorities are fed up of us shipping our problem over to them. Is it the case that the a significant number of dogs reacued here are shipped to the UK.

Yes, a huge amount, and there are a couple of 'rescues' in particular that take dogs out of the pound, throw them into whatever form of transport they can get, including horse boxes, unvaccinated, and ship them over. The general feeling in the rescue community is that it is because of this policy that the UK government are now implementing this. Ironically, I spotted one of the worst offenders posting on their FB page that they will be one of the first to comply with the new rules. Yeah right.

DBB

muddypaws wrote: »

Yes, a huge amount, and there are a couple of 'rescues' in particular that take dogs out of the pound, throw them into whatever form of transport they can get, including horse boxes, unvaccinated, and ship them over. The general feeling in the rescue community is that it is because of this policy that the UK government are now implementing this. Ironically, I spotted one of the worst offenders posting on their FB page that they will be one of the first to comply with the new rules. Yeah right.

Since news of this broke, I had the strong feeling that this was a response by the UK authorities to try to control the pretty much uncontrolled flow of Irish dogs into UK rescues.
I've been to one or two rescue groups in the UK, and they're royally peed off at how "we're" dumping our problem on them, because although the dog overpopulation problem isn't as big over there in general, in some areas of the country they have just as many unwanted dogs as we do, and those dogs are being pushed aside by Irish dogs.
Some Irish rescues have worked very hard to build up good relationships with some UK rescues, and they work very well together with careful selection of dogs, all dogs neutered and vaccinated before they go etc.
However, there are many Irish dogs just being sent over with no proper checks to see where they end up, and there have been quite a few cases of our dogs being thrown from the frying pan into the fire.
The bad feeling has been building for the past few years, so I'd be inclined to think that this rabies story is just an excuse.

brrabus

Vet Pete Wedderburn will be discussing this issue on TV3 Ireland AM tomorrow morning, estimated time of interview is 9 20am.

sambuka41

http://www.tv3.ie/ireland_am_video.php?locID=1.65.74&video=69677

Just got a chance to see his interview today, great to see that they are rolling back on the decision for pet travel. Not sure about the rescues, we should really deal with our problems better than exporting them, but its still sad to think of the dogs that will be PTS because there isn't the cash for them to travel.

Jack arrived to London at the weekend and unfortunately he has cat flu, as suspected, the stress of everything got the better of him. Would have been much easier on him not to have had to get a vaccine he didn't need and to be separated from his owner for 3 weeks. :mad: (Also no checkpoint in operation when he arrived!! typical :rolleyes: but wasn't worth the risk)

Inexile

The fact that pet dogs wont need the rabies vac in 2015 but rescue dogs will just shows that it has nothing to do with rabies. Why cant they just insist that all dogs rescues move are microchipped and that would help eliminate a lot of the unwanted trade in pets which it seems they are trying to eliminate.

TooManyDogs

I've been on to both departments of agriculture regarding Ireland-UK travel from the point of view of family pets accompanying their owners on holidays, in particular in relation to the tapeworm treatment.

Irish Ferries updated their website to include the full pet passport requirements and they include mandatory tapeworm treatment. Now DEFRA (UK dept of ag) state that dogs coming from Ireland to the UK don't need the tapeworm treatment, Ireland along with Finland, Malta and Norway are exceptions.

However if you look at the requirements to enter Ireland, that also includes all dogs holidaying in the UK but returning to Ireland, on the Irish dept of Ag site there is no mention of an exception.

This is of particular concern to me as I would go to the UK to compete in agility so just to clarify I rang the Irish Dept of Ag, and another club member emailed them, and we both were informed that Irish dogs returning to Ireland after a holiday in the UK do NOT need the tapeworm treatment.

I realise it's only a small thing compared to the hassle of the passport in general but it's worth knowing for anyone planning on taking their dogs on holiday

muddypaws

Interesting that Irish Ferries have now updated, and that the Irish Dept of Ag are also saying we need it now. I am hearing of commercial transporters being stopped, and new owners of Irish dogs in the UK being visited to have their paperwork looked at, so it does seem as though it is predominantly commercial transactions they are looking into. But, I would still think they will do a spot check or two every now and then just to show they are complying?

TooManyDogs

muddypaws wrote: »

But, I would still think they will do a spot check or two every now and then just to show they are complying?

That's the bit I'm not prepared to risk, just in case there are spot checks, I'd never forgive myself if any of my dogs were taken into quarantine because I didn't follow regs

muddypaws

Sorry to drag this up again, but still very relevant. Two dogs in the Netherlands have been reported to have rabies and been put to sleep. Puppies that were imported from Bulgaria, in full compliance with pet passport regulations etc. So I would think the UK and possibly now the Irish authorities will be checking and be more vigilant. It is causing discussion as to whether the loosening of the travel arrangements within the EU is a good thing, i.e., vaccinations but no blood tests anymore.