Pet Travel Blog

Summer for any pet travel agent is a busy time. People are on the move during the summer months. This week I have been trying to help a client move her sisters 3 dogs from Texas to Tanzania. The client came to me because she was frustrated with the first company that was trying to help her. She was pretty warn-out with all the details. I tried to simplify her life and went against my better instincts and used a different exporting city than L.A./LAX to ship the dogs to Africa. Never doing that again; ended up working with a ‘colleague’ that I had never worked with before. She was nice at first-quite the bragger about her company and what she did. When things started to get complicated-which they can when dealing with live animals and pet travel to the other side of the world, she got down right mean. I am trying to make things work for my client and she starts feeling ‘put out’ by the job and then accuses me of asking her to do something ‘unethical’ that I wouldn’t do but would have her do. Right, no way. Bottom line: bad communication and too much emotion. Who’s got the time to deal with that? Long story short, we are shipping the dogs to L.A. to the best exporter in the United States-the one I should have used in the beginning-and dogs will do fine. Life is just too short to deal with unhappy mean people-it’s summer!

Air Canada announced on June 22, 2007 that they no longer will be allowing pets on their airline. The reason they stated for this was the need for more cargo space for the passenger luggage. What does this have to do with carrying on a pet? There has always been a limit to 2 pets per cabin. So if two pieces of carry on size luggage have to be checked, how much space does that take in the hold? This is not good news for people who need to ship or travel with their pets. Continental Airlines will accept a few pets in the cabin on most of their domestic U.S. routes. They have a ‘no checked pet’ policy but instead have an awesome ‘Quick Pack’ pet policy in their cargo division. They go above and beyond in every way to try and accommodate pets on their airline. Delta, United, American and Northwest Airlines have summer temperature embargoes for checked and cargo pets and can be complicated but they have not banned pets all together – yet.
So does Air Canada not want to take pets because of cargo space for baggage or because they just don’t want to do it anymore? If you have choice in the Air Canada market, I suggest you try and take another carrier-even if you aren’t traveling with a pet.

The most common question asked when shipping pets is “Should I sedate my pet?” The airlines will not accept a sedated pet. Pets actually travel better when they are not sedated. They usually just curl up and go to sleep. I had a conversation with a retired cargo agent with United Airlines about his experience with pets on the job. He told me that the only time in his career that he ever saw problems with traveling pets was when they had been ‘drugged’. He explained to me that when you give the pet medication it makes them feel funny and then they panic. Suddenly they feel funny, they are hearing unfamiliar noises and they are confined in their travel kennels. They start to pant and get over heated. I guess you could best describe it as they “freak out”!

I have told hundreds of clients the issues of sedating pets for travel and the harm it causes.

NOW WHAT DO I DO?

This week I purchased a little second home in Southern Utah. It is beautiful there and I can always work my company virtual. I of course want to take my 2 dogs Oodles and Soozie! Soozie is great in the car and taking a 4 hour road trip will not faze her. Now Oodles is another story. She pants and shakes the minute I open the car door. It isn’t like I never take her in the car. She goes to the doggie day care every week to play and every single time she is a basket case. I have tried purchasing a doggie seat where she can sit up and see out-did not work. I have put her on the front seat with the seat warmer on-still a wreck. I have held her on my lap, tried to offer her treats, bones and still she just basically hates it. So now what do I do? If I want to take both of them to Southern Utah am I going to let the poor thing just deal with it or should I slip her a Dramamine? It is amazing how easily I can tell my clients to absolutely never sedate their pets when they travel and I am even considering doing it to my own pet! Only option: talk to my vet! I will update you after I talk to him about it.

Pet owners here in the U.S. need to take the importance of rabies vaccinations for our pets very seriously. The United States is not considered a ‘rabies free country’ and because of this importing a pet from the United States can be difficult. This must be for a reason.

Most other countries have very strict rabies vaccine policies for pets entering or importing to their countries. If your pet is traveling into any island country - New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the islands of Hawaii-the requirements to avoid long term quarantine are extensive. Your must complete rabies FAVN titer test with an ‘accredited USDA vet’ at an ‘approved lab’ many months in advance of entry. These results must meet a specific criteria stating that your pet is adequately vaccinated against rabies. Some countries may require a 30 day waiting period after the first rabies vaccine before entry is allowed. Other countries recognize the 3 year vaccine that we use here in the United States-but not all countries do. The documentation to verify that the rabies is valid and proof provided is strict and enforced. In reverse, to enter or reenter the United States-except Hawaii-all you really need for your pet is a valid health certificate. I sometimes wonder if any customs officials even look at these documents for validity and verification before letting pets enter the U. S. You rarely hear of a dog or cat that has rabies but I guess that there are bats and rodents that still carry rabies in our country. I personally wish we had a better method for containing rabies and also for what we allow to come into our country. The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah has prides itself on the ‘animal lifts’ and extensive efforts in bringing homeless pets from countries in the Middle East to the U.S. While it is wonderful that they want to save so many pets lives around the world, what new challenges that we do not even know about disease wise are they introducing by the ability to so easily bring pets into our country? With our country as sophisticated as it is, is this really a good thing to introduce to our pets that already exist here? I am not a vet and do not have that kind of a background, but is seems to me that if most other nations have strict regulations about rabies and diseases before allowing pets to enter their counties, why don’t we?

Pet Travel Advice for Dummies: Never ever let your pet’s rabies vaccine expire!