jukes

Hi,
Anyone know the best way to send our dog to the US? We will fly to Charlotte, NC, from Heathrow or Gatwick, on US Airways. Which company would you recommend? How long before you fly do you need to arrange? Does the dog come on same flight in cargo?
Thanks!

Pinky29

Hi Jukes
Trying to organise the same thing at the moment from Paris to DC. From the research I have done the animals (I have 3 to ship) will go in cargo (unless they are tiny). I think you have to be there about 3 hours beforehand but check with the airline and they can help - Air France have been very helpful for me so far. Apparently though there is a lot of paperwork to fill out.
Good luck!

Weeze

Hi both. There are lots of threads about shipping dogs to the US. My own experience is in the thread below:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...M+dog+Aberdeen

You need to check with the state you are importing to about any restrictions on the breed you want to import. Then you need to sort the medical stuff (rabies vaccine, fit to fly certificate, pet passport if you want to return, heart worm tablet if you want to start in advance of move). Then comes the carrier, do it yourself or use carrier company? Which flights will allow your dog on (we had restrictions do to the type of aircraft). If you are doing it yourself you may need to get your crate signed off by a vet as well. Different airlines have different rules. My experience was pre the pet changes so there may be more hoops to jump through now.
Oh, and if you are very organized, you might want basic liability cover before you move just in case your pet causes any problems. We organized it as I was paranoid about the serviced apartment we were in.
Good luck. It is doable but my advice is to read up everywhere, print everything out and don't trust that other people (vet, airline etc) will know what they are talking about. Having things in writing is always good.

1chumly

I travelled on KLM from the UK like Weeze. It is better if you travel on the same flight where your pet will travel in a special hold. I have shipped pets 3 times now and have always done it myself but different airlines have different rules about having to use a pet shipping company. When will you be travelling as I believe new rules come into play in January concerning the pet passport. Also there may be weather restrictions. DEFRA answers just about everything about the UK end but your dog will need a rabies shot and it would be a good idea to start Heartworm treatment before you leave so he/she will be covered from day one. You will also probably need a 'fit to fly' or health certificate from your vet a few days before you fly. It's too bad you have to use US Airways as they are a crap airline IMO but I have no idea what they are like regarding transporting pets.

Weeze is right about people not knowing what they are talking about. Check, check and check again! I shipped my parrot which was an absolute nightmare. Between the USDA and DEFRA I made dozens of calls and got a different answer every time. Who to believe? I eventually sorted it all out but it wasn't fun.

It is very stressful but really not too bad once it is all done (as long as you don't have a parrot)!! Good luck.

thephionex

we just booked our flights with AA and got the dog on aswell $170 dollars cargo just had to have her Rabies shot 30 days before and fit to fly 10 days before

Phoodilicious

I flew our two pets out from Heathrow to Texas in February this year and used a great company our vet recommended called Airpets. Airpets are based just minutes from Heathrow and are a full quarantine kennels/cattery. Very professional service and they will even come collect the pets the day before and settle them in at the quarantine kennels to have their pre-flight vet check to clear them to fly etc. They transport them to the terminal and have arrangements with the carriers that allows the crates to sit for as little time as possible pre flight. At the USA end they organised the customs clearance and onward delivery to the hotel we were booked in to. They travelled the same flight as us and were delivered to our hotel about an hour after we arrived. The person who brought them was a vet and he had checked them out first and made sure they were fine etc. We couldn't have asked for a better service and the peace of mind (as much as we could have!) was great. Airpets did all the checks with the US end to make sure everything was ok, type of plane, crate size, time of year for temperatures as some airports don't allow pets to be on the tarmac at certain times of year due to extremes of temperature etc. Airpets require a full 30 days advance notice as they have to issue paperwork or something with a notice of intent to ship they told us.

Pre-journey, we had them microchipped, rabies injected and a passport done through our vets, this process took 6 weeks in total. Ideally you should have a blood test done 30 days after the rabies vaccinations to make sure it has "taken" as although the States don't require this to enter, the UK does for your pets to return. You need to have a blood test result to be issued with a full passport, if they have the vaccinations and you don't have the blood test then you just get a partial passport. You can get the blood test done the US end but if you do so then I am told you must allow 6 months after the blood tests before your pets will be allowed entry into the UK. Better to have this done in the UK if there is time and you don't anticipate any need that would require you to return to UK at short notice.

Bob

You don't mention when.

Some carriers have restrictions about the time of year about certain destinations, especially if there are lay overs, either for being to hot or cold on the runway.

jukes

December or January, did read that weekends and holidays, customs in USA closed for pets so will fly midweek!

kscards

We used following agent, we used to live in Hampshire so not too long a journey on M3.
Ladyhaye International Pet Travel Agents LLP
Tel: +44 (0)1342 832161
Hare Lane
Blindley Heath
Surrey RH7 6JB

Brilliant company, let you know all rules & regs, arrange everything for you, even to point of collection, plus board pets overnight prior to flight, you can fly on same flight as pet too, mainly use BA for most journeys. Our black lab made it perfectly to Germany & last year they arranged for our GSD to fly to Florida, can't speak more highly about them.