Moving my pet ferret to the US
Jul 17th 2012, 6:46 pm
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Joined: Jul 2012
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Moving my pet ferret to the US
Hi There
I've been lurking on the forums for a while and have seen the many threads on moving pets to the US - mainly cats and dogs so I thought I'd share my experience of moving my ferret. When i first found out about relocation there was no question about not bringing Ozzie so I began a long process of phoning around both shipping companies and the airlines directly. I didn't get very far with the airlines who all said i needed to use a pet shipper and that he had to go in the hold. I wasn't very satisfied with the pet shipping companies I came across neither - I found many to be unresponsive and unfriendly - not what I wanted for the job of moving Ozzie. After many calls and quotes (ranging from GPB 400 to GBP 2,000!!) I finally contacted <<<snip>>> and they were fantastic.
At the same time as doing this I was also preparing Ozzie - like cats and dogs he can get a pet passport so he had his microchip and rabies vaccine before getting his passport issued.
And thirdly I was contacting the authorities in the US about any import requirements for ferrets. I was passed around from department to department all over the country. In the end I was advised to apply for an import certificate which I did only to then have it sent back to me 6 weeks later stating there were no import requirements on ferrets so no certificate needed.
I also had to contact the state Vet in the state we were living as ferrets are banned in certain states (New York included which is where we were moving to!) so we opted to live in New Jersey where they are legal! The state vet advised me there were no requirements in New Jersey other than having a license to keep Ozzie which I went ahead and applied for.
So all of this came together eventually, Ozzie got his fitness to fly certificate and off he went to the aiport with my partner - I was already over in the US so they came over together on the same Continental flight from Manchester. <<<snip>>> provided a crate and Ozzie was delivered to the cargo terminal at Manchester. At this end, I arrived in plenty of time at Newark and had every bit of paper under the sun relating to the advice I'd been given about his import / certificates etc etc. At Newark there's a great animal reception facility where you can wait - it was lovely to see so many different animals arriving and being reunited with their owners. And eventually Ozzie arrived and was cleared about an hour before my partner was!! I didn't have to show a single bit of paper after all that neither. And now he's been here 5 weeks and is loving the change of scene.
Therefore, my advice, especially when transporting pets other than cats or dogs, would be to make as many calls as you can and fully check out the State requirements. But don't let this put you off as it can be much simpler than anticipated if you plan ahead properly.
I've been lurking on the forums for a while and have seen the many threads on moving pets to the US - mainly cats and dogs so I thought I'd share my experience of moving my ferret. When i first found out about relocation there was no question about not bringing Ozzie so I began a long process of phoning around both shipping companies and the airlines directly. I didn't get very far with the airlines who all said i needed to use a pet shipper and that he had to go in the hold. I wasn't very satisfied with the pet shipping companies I came across neither - I found many to be unresponsive and unfriendly - not what I wanted for the job of moving Ozzie. After many calls and quotes (ranging from GPB 400 to GBP 2,000!!) I finally contacted <<<snip>>> and they were fantastic.
At the same time as doing this I was also preparing Ozzie - like cats and dogs he can get a pet passport so he had his microchip and rabies vaccine before getting his passport issued.
And thirdly I was contacting the authorities in the US about any import requirements for ferrets. I was passed around from department to department all over the country. In the end I was advised to apply for an import certificate which I did only to then have it sent back to me 6 weeks later stating there were no import requirements on ferrets so no certificate needed.
I also had to contact the state Vet in the state we were living as ferrets are banned in certain states (New York included which is where we were moving to!) so we opted to live in New Jersey where they are legal! The state vet advised me there were no requirements in New Jersey other than having a license to keep Ozzie which I went ahead and applied for.
So all of this came together eventually, Ozzie got his fitness to fly certificate and off he went to the aiport with my partner - I was already over in the US so they came over together on the same Continental flight from Manchester. <<<snip>>> provided a crate and Ozzie was delivered to the cargo terminal at Manchester. At this end, I arrived in plenty of time at Newark and had every bit of paper under the sun relating to the advice I'd been given about his import / certificates etc etc. At Newark there's a great animal reception facility where you can wait - it was lovely to see so many different animals arriving and being reunited with their owners. And eventually Ozzie arrived and was cleared about an hour before my partner was!! I didn't have to show a single bit of paper after all that neither. And now he's been here 5 weeks and is loving the change of scene.
Therefore, my advice, especially when transporting pets other than cats or dogs, would be to make as many calls as you can and fully check out the State requirements. But don't let this put you off as it can be much simpler than anticipated if you plan ahead properly.
Last edited by Jerseygirl; Jul 17th 2012 at 7:09 pm. Reason: company name removed
