Hi everyone,

I've been trawling through endless information both on here, on air carriers websites, on pet transport companies websites and on respective government export/import regulation websites.

In order to (hopefully) save some of you some time and effort of going through all the (sometimes) useless information I thought I'd create a 'one stop' thread for anyone to refer to.

This information I gathered & link to is based on the idea of bringing a pet(s) cat/dog over to Canada from the UK one way and is NOT regarding PETS Passport scheme which would allow you to bring them all around the world with you at a nice hefty price for the privilege... just want to cover my butt in advance

From what I've been able to find with air carriers, the 'clearest' guidelines (and also in some cases the cheapest or most reliable) regarding Pet Transport are Air Transat & Air Canada Cargo.

Air Transat's guidelines on pet travel are at the link HERE

Air Canada's Cargo division website guidelines on pet travel are at the link HERE You can also navigate through the AC Cargo Live panel on the left hand side of the page to get more in depth information.

This one is a useful one stop shop for information on international pet imports/exports which can also be searched via airline carrier by navigating the panel on the left of their website (for those who have already booked flights) these guys give alot of useful free information on the process HERE

We bought our 3 year old little cat (shorter then 35 cm sat upright & weighs 4kg/8.8 pounds luckily) a Hagen Cabrio (Pet Cargo) carrier last year which is *supposed* to be appropriate for air transport... we'll see what happens next Spring when we actually get her checked in Anyway, the product information for the carrier is at this website HERE

Now on to the boring head thumping government animal regulations websites.... I spent about 4 hours trying to navigate my way to relevant information on the respective UK & Canadian official websites, nice to know they share similarities in complicating websites to confuse the general populace

The overall official body for international animal transport type stuff that are responsible for setting the major airline's standards & guidelines for 'live' pet transport is called the IATA, this link is to the general 'so you want to ship your pet internationaly?' guideline type page HERE
And the boring stuff (I think is mostly relevant to transport companies/airlines but just in case someone needs it) on the IATA website can be found HERE

Now for the respective export/import government authorities websites... brace yourselves as this bit is long, complicated and really confusing!

The UK official for animal import/export is called DEFRA website HERE, most well established vets in the UK know who they are.

With regards to getting export certificates for your pet dog/cat to leave the UK & enter Canada, you will probably need to get this via your authorised Vet which we were quoted about £60GBP for our 1 little cat to have just the export certificate drawn up by DEFRA & then signed by our vet. I believe the Export Certificate issued from DEFRA to the vet states something to the effect of 'little moggie or bowwow has been living in a Rabies Free country the past 6 months or more prior to travel and therefore doesn't require rabies jab/tests' from what the vet explained to me. WARNING: Again, this is NOWT to do with the PETS travel scheme which is a more complicated & expensive process!

The Canadian importing pets site appears to be alot shorter & more concise on what is required for them to allow your pet into the country. The website for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (not saying your pet is edible! They are the branch of the Canadian govt that governs live animal imports *lol*) can be found HERE for cats and HERE for dogs.

Hope this helps some of you cut down the time & hassle during the process!

Thats brilliant, Thanks for putting it together. Is there anyway of putting this on the WIKKI so it wont get lost, this topic seems to crop up a lot, even in my short time on this board?

Sharon

Gosh I dont know THAT much about computers to put it up on Wikipedia

I posted this as much for my own reference as for the benefit of others as my 'favorites' of bookmarks in my browser are getting confused and over crowded LOL!

I'll be needing all those websites & info come January 2008 when we start contacting the authorities (DEFRA) and vets to get the ball rolling on our cat travelling to Canada with us next April.

Thanks Daedra, that's so helpful & imformative

I'm going to subscribe to this thread - that's a way to keep a thread so you can keep an eye on it

Cheers Arris

Thanks Arris, its a long and stressful process just to emmigrate on your own let alone with (what I consider) your 'little ones' aka dogs & cats, it's just nice to have all the different websites & basic info in one spot as by the end of this afternoon after dozens of google searches & website reading, my head was pounding like a drum

The onyl 2 airlines I could find clear & concise information readily avaidable on was Air Canada & Air Transat... right now Air Transat's my first choice as they do occasional direct flights from Manchester to Montreal & I'd like to minimize chance of pet getting lost in transit, or sitting around alone in waiting holds during transfers.

I'm sure there must be other airlines out there that do it (I hope!?) that people can add on here! If anyone reading this knows of any other Airlines that do it too... or that you've recently ondergone the process yourself, please share your experiences with the rest of us

shameless bump for pet owners out there

Hi D

Judy in Calgary seems to be the whizz at opening up wiki bits so I will PM this thread to her and maybe she can copy and paste it over into the wiki for you

gaynor
x

It is done.

Oooh you clever little cookie you! Thanks so much Judy!!!

Thats great Judy, Thanks

Sharon

This way all of the time and effort you put in to research this doesnt get lost in the forum - easier to share it with everyone this way and you can update it as necessary too with anything that you want to change

Gaynor

I never realised there was a wiki section on BE before *lol* Thanks for the suggestion BB, great idea

We may be going the other way, with Max our overindulged but incredibly cute Yorkie.

Thanks for the info.