Anything For Animals

posted by admin on Apr 19

Traveling with your cats or dogs can be fun, but taking them into another country needs careful planning.  However, travel around Europe just got much easier with the PETS Travel Scheme - and here is a quick run down….. 

If you are thinking of entering the UK with your cat or dog, you have 2 options to legally do so:

1) 6-months Quarantine
2) A PETS Passport

Basically, the UK is rabies-free and they would like to keep it that way - so they make sure that all possible carriers (mainly carnivorous mammals) are regulated on entry.

This includes both domestic and wild animals that enter the country (by human intervention) and as a result cats and dogs are included in these regulations and as a result need to be proved to not carry the virus.

The only way to guarantee this is to successfully vaccinate the animal and wait 6 months before giving it the ‘all-clear’.

Why 6 months?
The incubation period for the rabies virus (the time it takes from infection to the animal showing symptoms) is around 6 months.  It can be shorter or a bit longer - but 6 months is the accepted incubation period for governmental legislation.

Therefore, if the dog had contracted rabies the day before it entered the UK, it will very likely become symptomatic within 6 months.  As it would have been in quarantine kennels all this time, there is no risk of that dog having passed it on to any other dogs, cats or other mammals.

So Why Is There No Quarantine With The Passports?
The reason is simple.  To acquire the PETS (Pet Travel Scheme)Passport, the cat or dog still needs to wait for a 6 month period to elapse before being allowed to freely enter the UK.

This means that if you find a stray do in Spain and want to bring it to the UK, you have to obtain a valid PETS passport - which takes over 6 months.  Basically the period of ‘quarantine’ is still there, but the dog or cat doesn’t have to spend it in a kennel.

How To Get Your PETS Passport:
Obtaining a PETS passport is very simple and involves 5 simple steps.  Basically you are individually identifying your cat or dog permanently and then proving it has enough rabies anti-bodies in it’s blood to protect against a new rabies infection.

The first 4 steps are to get the passport in the first place and will take at least 7 months from start to finish:

1) Get your cat or dog micro-chipped
2) Get you cat or dog vaccinated against rabies
3) Get a blood test result to prove you pet is protected
4) Obtain an official PETS passport from a qualified vet

The final step needs to be carried out within a 24-48 hour window on your entry or return to the UK:

5) Obtain official Tick and Tapeworm treatment

What Next?
To travel around other countries in the EU does not usually require the PETS passport, but many have their own regulations for transporting your pets.  And these guidelines are mainly for your entry to the UK, so always check the current legislation with DEFRA (UK) or other national body before traveling with your pets.

The PETS passport is valid for as long as the rabies vaccine is in date, so make sure that you do not let it expire by even 1 day - otherwise you will have to start the process all over again!