Pet Travel Blog

In my pet travel agency I get many inquires from pet owners who have to travel internationally on professional assignments that last six months to two years. It is always hard for them to decide to take or leave their pets behind. There are many things that you need to consider when taking a pet with you under this type of situation. First of all how difficult is it going to be to get your pet to qualify as a live animal import to the country you will to be assigned to? Some countries are much easier than others. Second, you will need to find out how much money it is going to cost to GET your pet there. Sometimes you can actually travel with them and sometimes you have to have them arrive as a piece of manifested cargo. Many times the employer will pay for you and your family’s travel but not your pet, so you need to find out what costs are involved. This also includes whether or not you need an export – importer to help you on arrival to clear local customs and immigration. Third you will want to research out where you are planning to live and what the pet policy at that particular place is. It is not uncommon for clients to jump through all the hoops to get their pet somewhere and then find out AFTER they have signed a binding rental agreement for housing that pets are not allowed. Very disappointing!
Fourth, you may want to tentatively find out the cost to return your pet when your employment commitment has ended. It is my rule of thumb as a pet travel agent that you are looking at about one-third more in cost if you are returning to the United States. That of course can vary considerably. The one easy thing-all that is required for a pet to enter the United States typically is a recent health certificate from a licensed veterinarian and proof of rabies for dogs. This information can be found at:
http://www.foreignborn.com/visas_imm/entering_us/2bringyourpet.htm

My opinion on whether or not to take your pet/s is: If the costs are not extreme and the requirements not too complex, I say take your pet. I have had so many clients tell me how happy they were that they decided to commit the additional expense and take their pets with them. Many of us consider our pets’ part of the family. Think how difficult it is to leave family members and be so far away from home. Pets bridge that gap so well. I recently had a client that moved her entire family to Sydney Australia. Australia is one of the MORE DIFFICULT destinations to import a pet. She sent me an email after her dog had finally cleared the mandatory quarantine of 30 days for Australia and told me how much better her children had adjusted to their new home because the dog was there with them. She had no doubts that it was really worth the extra expense and effort.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 10:15 pm and is filed under International Pet Travel Importing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.