Hands up if you know about the pet passport rules changing from January 1st!

[duchesse]

It appears that the rules for importing pets into the UK are changing from January 1st, being changed to be made less strict for pets entering from many EU countries.

I have a personal interest in this as I'm trying to bring my puppy back from France (bred by my BIL and born in May) and it will make a big difference (ie a number of months) about when we can bring her home. A couple of months ago my BIL rang and mentioned that his vet has told him about the relaxation of these rules.

So I tried to find out about it in the UK. So far I have spoken to numerous staff at a variety of ferry companies (including border staff, one of whom went on a training course a fortnight ago and was not told of it!), my vet (apparently emailed by DEFRA back in July according to helpline woman), and a number of other people who one might reasonably expect to know such things, over the last 3 months. Not one of them had heard anything of it.

The DEFRA website page is here. I could not make a head or tail of it, can't work out what's changed and what's not, so I rang their "help"line and spoke to one of the rudest, most abrasive and most condescending women I have encountered in a long time, who basically read the website out to me and told me it was crystal-clear.

She did however make the big mistake of giving me the email address of the person who runs the pet travel scheme. I shall in my email be mentioning the level of service I received, rude Liverpudlian woman.

So anyway, my question is, how many of you habitual travellers are aware of this change?

We are currently getting our passport as we are moving to Germany for a couple of years in the New Year.

We spoke to our vet last week and she said under the current rules, we need a rabies jab, then a blood test and if that all goes well then she can issue a passport, however we would not be able to return to the uk for 6 months from the blood test results.

From the 1st of January, they are getting rid of the need for a blood test and pets will be able to return to the UK 3 weeks after the rabies jab.

This is what our vet has told us and she also gave us an information booklet too.

Hope that helps :)

I'm not an habitual traveller, but was aware of it for a number of reasons. Some kennels and catteries that specialise in quarantine animals will have their workload affected from next year, as obviously there won't be the trade. It will be interesting to see how this impacts on their business models and how many will attempt to move into stray contracts as a consequence. They may also be offering kennel places for rescue dogs at more competitive rates.

I'm also aware of it in relation to ongoing debates re microchipping and legislation. Here in Wales, dog breeding legislation will (finally!) be changed/improved and the issue of chipping is closely linked. Hence there have been very detailed discussions about what dogs already need these under other rules such as travel requirements. Sorry, I'm a chip geek.

MiseryBusiness is absolutely correct about the new details. All vets who carry Panel 2 LVI licensing (that is export of Pets) received 2 letters from DEFRA in July outlining the new scheme. So yes the DEFRA lady is right. June DEFRA press release this gives all the details of the new scheme.
I published this thread on 17th July about these changes.
As a practice we have contacted all existing passport holders in July, informed everyone asking about a passport since then has been advised about the new rules as my staff all had a simplified copy of them on the 30th June.

So in simple to travel in the EU and a selection of other approved countries from the 1st January 2012 your pet will need to have had a rabies vaccination not less than 21 days prior to travel and not more than the interval specified by the vaccine manufacturer. Your vet will need to issue you with an EU Pet Passport document showing all of this. The rules for tick and tapeworm treatments have not yet been finalised and owners are advised to check the DEFRA website before re-entering the UK.

Scuttlebuttle since the introduction of the Pet passport scheme the number of UK quarantine places have fallen by 90% I suspect the few that are left will still remain to deal with the port failures.
Also forgot to mention that pets should have had an ISO micorchip implanted prior to the rabies vaccination being given.

Thank you for the link to that press release LizCat. I find it a actually a lot clearer than the information page, properly highlighting the changes between now and after January 1st.

My puppy was vaccinated against rabies on the 13th of September, so under the new rules we could have her here already if it were past January 1st 2012.

I'm sure DEFRA lady was correct, she was also rude, abrasive and dismissive.

I still don't understand why my vet (who is registered to administer pet passports), and all the ferry border staff I've spoken to are still unaware of the changes.

Your vet has simply not read the information which they have been sent - sorry to be blunt. As a Panel 2 LVI your are expected to and should be able to keep up with information that is passed to us by DEFRA.
Ferry border staff it is not uncommon for them not to be told until a couple of days before changes are introduced. They are issued with tick box compliance paperwork and it is for the individual companies to give information out when they consider it approriate.

I rang my vet earlier and left them a message about it LizCat- I feel it's a little suboptimal that they don't know about it.

Thanks for posting this Duchesse, I have an appointment booked next week to have our newest dog's rabies jab, thinking that I needed to give it the 6 months before next summer (in case we find some money somewhere that'll enable us to go on hols!). I'm thinking though, that maybe the process will be a little cheaper in January, now that the blood test is no longer required? Does anyone know if this is likely to be the case? If so, I'll hang on until January then and will be even more grateful for you posting this info

Obviously you won't need to pay for a blood test. Our practice does pay as you go for each item so it removes about £70 of the cost with us.

I was aware of the changes, but because we live in France and want to keep all pets up to date just in case we need to return to the UK in a hurry. It's brilliant they have relaxed the regulations, much cheaper (we had to do the blood tests for 4 dogs twice as they all failed first time!) and faster!

Thanks Lizcat losing the cost of a blood test is brill!