Pup

Great Britian has extended it's &quot;Pet Passports&quot; program to cats and dogs in the USA traveling to the UK. Starting December 11,2002, cats and dogs from the United States can travel without quarantine to England.<BR>Pup is very happy about this, as he has many friends that have been waiting for him to visit. He will also try to include in his London visit, a few days in Scotland where he wants to visit a friend named Winston.<BR>Anyone else taking their pups to England?

Jen

This is great news for so many pets and their people! Do you have the name of an official organization, or perhaps a web site, where we can get further details? I assume that rabies certificates are required?

Meg

Hi Pup and Jen,<BR>I'm afraid it's still not completely hassle-free.<BR><BR>The website to view is http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/<BR>It tells you just about everything you want to know and also gives an email info-line address.<BR>Good luck!<BR>

gina

Do the dogs need to be listed on an owner's passport, and have two recent photos handy? Do they have a name? And do they need a diaper?

rrr

Will pets be required to purchase a ticket or if like a child and you hold in your lap, fly for free? If they are large and require a seat, and droll on the person next to them, do they require two tickets? Will the airlines provide poopy bags? Special meals? Will they be treated with dignity and respect when they walk up and down the isle for exercise much as toddlers who can't sit still? How about if they make a fuss and start barking or whinning? Will they be granted special privileges to sniff for Al you know who? HEY, perhaps they should be paid for adding an extra layer of security. What a great idea!!! Traveling pets get paid to travel. YEAH.<BR><BR>Honestly though, who would want to put a pet through a transatlantic flight? Probably arrive a mess, hungry and scared.

Cavalier

Expats returning to the UK?

y

rrr, some pets multitask - drool and droll. In answer to your queries, yes. Anyone who travels with an elderly relative or young child will immediately catch on to the groundrules for pet flying. What about the FF miles - who gets 'em?

petlover

Please don't send your pets overseas unless you're relocating. Pets will probably travel in cargo, not in a heated or airconditioned cabin. 7-9 hours is an awful long time to spend in an unpressurized cargo area confined to a kennel with soiled newspapers. Rover and Fluffy will arrive hungry, confused and probably traumatized from the ordeal and they'll have to relive the experience by flying back home. Unless you own a private jet just leave them at home with a caregiver.

Greg

Agree wiyh pet lover. Please leave me at home.<BR><BR><BR>Rover

x

I use the cat to keep my BP low - sorry, but Fluffy goes! Or maybe I could lease a UK cat ... anybody got the scoop on that option?

Denise

Yippee! I am so happy to hear that the quarantine has been lifted. That's the best news I've heard in years! Now I would consider living in England...I would have been heartbroken to move there before.

janeygirl

And my brother's dog, Moses, will be one happy little guy now that he'll be able to move to England!<BR><BR>(he's been living with me for the past year and a half since my brother moved there)<BR><BR>I think Moses will love pubs. Does Pup like pubs?

D. Phinney

Not a continuation of the pup stuff, sorry.<BR><BR>I heard that Britain is treating its first human case of rabies in about eighty years (from contact with a rabid bat). I wonder how this will impact the newly liberalized pet policies?<BR><BR>On the one hand, the whole stated reason for the quarantine is that Britain is rabies free. That obviously is not the case at this point, so maybe the whole reason for the unreasonable quarantine is dead. On the other hand, the government might use this case as an excuse to repeal the new permissive pet policies (blame the foreigners for introducing rabies in the first place and exclude them again).<BR><BR>Anyone closer to the political scence in Britain care to guess how the rabies scare is likely to affect the new pet policies?

janis

It may indeed affect things. I lived in the UK and there was a rabies scare. The quarantine period had been 6 months. Overnight they extended it to 12 months (neither period makes sense since the rabies incubation period is MUCH shorter. Quarantine is not meant to protect domestic animals - it is a &quot;political&quot; policy to discourage importing of animals)<BR><BR>Well, a neighbor's dog and 2 cats had already been in Q for 4+ months but it was extended to 12 months and they were heartbroken. 18 mos. later Q was shortened back to 6 months. So this new rabies scare may definitely change things.

Jen

Rabies has such a long incubation period that a person bitten by a rabid animal can be immunized after receivinghte bite. In the current case in Britain, a woman was bitten by a bat that was found to be rabid. She and five others who had contactwith the animal are receiving immunization. This is not quite the same as Britain experiencing a case of &quot;human rabies.&quot; <BR><BR>Furthermore, this is not the &quot;first time in 80 years&quot; that this has occurred; in 1996, two women in Newhaven were bitten by a rabid bat.

sam

Overall, I'm a pet person. I like dogs, I like cats, I like birds and bunnies and guinea pigs. I have major issues with people bringing pets on planes. If you must travel with them, they should be in cargo. <BR><BR>They had to stop serving peanuts on flights because of people's allergies. My daughter has a severe allergy to cats - why should she subjected to cats on the plane? She's careful to avoid them at home, but there's nothing she can do if the guy behind her has Princess in a box under the seat. <BR><BR>Has anyone ever sat hear a dog who has used his carrier as a toilet?? Not pleasant on a 7 hour flight. <BR><BR>Bring the animals if you must - but let them travel in the belly of the plane where they belong.

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Yosef

Traveling pets?<BR><BR>Oh, joy. I can only imagine the ramifications of that brilliant decision.

BTilke

The type of rabies associated with the recent bat bite case in the UK is an extremely rare strain that can only come from bats. If indeed, it does prove to be rabies. The patient was being treated for rabies to be safe, but there wasn't definitive proof (as of yesterday) that the bat was actually rabid.

pleaseexplain

Does anyone have any informaton about how traumatic it actually is for a pet to fly in cargo? I am planning on spending 3+ months in Europe and I don't want to leave my dog behind. While most posters are adamantly against pets in cargo, has anyone done this? I would never put my dog through a painful experience and I know that there are some risks involved. However, if anyone has taken their pet to the veterinarian, they know that they are crated for the time that they are left there. Oftentimes, as long as an international flight if it is is during an 8-hour working day. Do any of the posters have actual experiences to post about this, positive or negative?