Travel documents

Dogs, cats and ferrets.

Before you can ship your pets, they need to comply with a couple of conditions;

A-     They need to have a passport

B-     They need to have a chip or tattoo for identification.

C-     For almost every destination,  rabies vaccination is required at least 30 days prior to departure.

D-     For almost every destination, a health certificate is needed issued within one week     prior to departure.

Travel within the EU:

All dogs, cats and ferrets need to have a EU-passport when they are travelling to another country. You can get a EU-passport at your own vet.

All dogs, cats and ferrets should be vaccinated against rabies. An official vet can do this vaccination. The vet is also authorized to make a sign of this vaccination in the EU-passport.

For identification, owners are obliged to let their pet be chipped or tattooed.

Who wants to bring their dog, cat or ferret to the UK, Ireland, Malta or Sweden,  has to go to the vet with their pet for an obliged rabies blood test. This requirement is also valid when a pet from an EU-country travels to a third country which is not mentioned on the list ’transportation from a third country to an EU-country’.

Australia/ New Zealand

For Australia and New Zealand there are very strict import rules applicable. For the completeness we refer to the website www.aqis.gov.au for Australia and www.maf.govt.nz for New Zealand.

In both cases dogs and cats need to be vaccinated against rabies, 30 days after vaccination, blood can be tested on rabies. As from the date of the blood test, a waiting time of 150 days for Australia is applicable and 6 months for New Zealand before your pet can be transported to these countries.

When the rabies blood test is OK, you have to go to the government vet to legalize the test result. After this you can request an import permit. When you receive the import permit, you also receive an empty Certificate A and  B. Certificate A tells you on what kind of diseases your pet should be tested within 30 days prior to departure. After you complete Certificate A, you have to go to the government vet (VWA) again to legalize all original documents including all test results. Certificate B should stay empty till the day of departure. On the day of departure the official government vet at the airport will complete this document and will seal the kennel. After arrival, your pet has to go to a quarantine station for a minimum period of 30 days.

Be aware of quarantine waitlists, so be sure you have made a reservation for your pet in time.

There are 3 places where animals may enter Australia, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

The most common destinations in New Zealand are Auckland and Christchurch.

You find quarantine possibilities in these 5 cities. For addresses and contact details, we refer to earlier mentioned websites.

United Kingdom

There are also strict rules to export animals to the United Kingdom. These rules are mentioned in the Pet Travel Scheme. In case you don’t want a quarantine period in the UK, your pet needs to travel according the Pet Travel Scheme requirements. You can find these requirements on the following website: www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/pets/procedures/owners.htm

For more information regarding requirements of other countries, please contact the embassy of country of destination.

http://ambassade.startpagina.nl/