Essential Advice about Moving Abroad and Taking Your Pet

I have a dog…anyone who knows me knows that my dog is my world (I also have a husband and a daughter who are as important of course!!!) – but my dog takes up ridiculous amounts of my time, my money, my love and my every waking moment really – so when it comes to essential advice about moving abroad and taking your pet I know that there is a lot to know!

For many people having a pet makes life seem more fulfilling somehow - but when it comes to the consideration of life changing actions such as retiring overseas or relocating abroad to start a new life, a pet can suddenly feel like a millstone.  However, it needn’t be such a burden to move abroad and take the family pet; this article contains the straightforward facts that you need to know.

The rules and regulations about taking your pet to live in another country depend on so very many criteria. 

For example, certain breeds of dog that are allowed to live in one country are banned in another as they are seen as dangerous; certain types of reptile are not allowed to be imported into other countries as they are deemed to pose a health risk.  In addition to this, different countries have different rules relating to quarantine and some nations have cases of diseases such as rabies for example that other countries have already eradicated.  What all this means is that you need to research the process that you personally will have to go through when moving abroad and taking your pet based on three things – the country you’re coming from, the country you’re moving to and the pet that you have.

Fortunately for us Brits, Britain has some of the strictest laws on quarantine in the whole world so chances are, if our animal meets the home country standards it can usually be transported overseas without the requirement for long periods of time in quarantine.

You may have heard of PETS or the Pets Travel Scheme – this is a scheme that many nations are signed up to and it allows for the transportation of animals within the scheme between many nations in the world without the need for additional health checks once they arrive and/or time spent in quarantine.  If you can get your animal in the scheme you’re laughing!

The rules can change and so you need to check out DEFRA’s website to learn all about what you need to do to get your dog or cat into the scheme.  At the moment a basic outline of the rules are you have to have your animal microchipped, then vaccinated against rabies and then blood tested.  Your animal also has to be fully up to date with the usual jabs and tablets and be deemed healthy as well.  You can call DEFRA’s Pet Travel Scheme Helpline on +44 (0)870 241 1710 (Monday to Friday - 8.30am to 5pm UK time) if you have any ongoing concerns or questions by the way - and your vet should be able to offer you personalised advice particular to your animal’s own health requirements.

Remember to also research the rules of the country that you’re moving to to ensure that you have done everything you need to do to import your animal.  Look on the internet, look at government sites, British embassy sites in the given country and forums of expatriates who have already made the move…and just collate all the facts you need to know. 

Ideally you will be doing all this research at least 6 months before you travel to give yourself as much time as is required for chipping, tagging, jabbing and all the rest of it!

When it comes to physically moving your animal overseas you may think packing them on a plane is the best, least hassle way to go.  But did you know that animals can become so stressed on aeroplanes?  In fact, the RSPCA say that the stress levels can go so high that if you can possibly avoid it and drive your animal, take them by sea or train then so much the better.  Of course, that’s not always possible…for example, driving to Australia or taking the trains to Canada from the UK could be tricky!

Again, it’s time to refer to DEFRA’s excellent website – they have a whole section about animal welfare when travelling and it includes information such as travelling overnight if you can, feeding your pet well in advance of travel, arriving at your port, station or airport of travel early so you don’t have to rush round and panic your animal more.

And finally – there are some companies who can manage the whole thing for you!  Companies like Pet Air are very honest about it though - while they will ensure your animal is only handled by lovely sympathetic and fully trained vets and animal specialists and that they really will handle the whole transportation from door to door – they admit it won’t be cheap!  In fact, they suggest that it will cost more to ship your pet than it will cost to ship you and your entire family overseas.  But you will know your animal is in the safest of hands and who can put a price on that?  I can’t – much to my husband’s horror! 

P.s., no the picture accompanying this article is not upside down, the dog is.

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