Gizmo is a two year old Persian cat given to Sherry in rather a roundabout way in Abu Dhabi. He was probably imported from somewhere in the FSU. When he first arrived he looked like this startled fluff-ball to the right. Now he has taken on a more serious, comfortable air as above. The process of moving him from the Gulf to Europe has so far been fairly painless. For us at least, though the series of injections Gizmo has been subject can't always have been very comfortable.
Gizmo's Page
This might, at first glance, seem a bit flippant, but it has the more serious purpose of documenting our experiences of moving Gizmo from the Middle East to the United Kingdom via the fortunate accident of having a place to stay in France for six months.
Leaving the Gulf was quite simple. The French authorities
require a certificate of vaccination and the UAE authorities want an animal
export licence. We avoided him having to go through luggage security by
getting one of the security guards to make a visual inspection.
Air France is one of the few airlines that
allow animals to travel as hand luggage, but the animal and its container
has to be no more than 5kgs. Gizmo, of course, was just on the 5kg mark
and his carrier put us over the limit. Throwing money at the problem seemed
to solve it and Gizmo travelled inside the plane with us.
Arriving in Paris, we had to change planes for Toulouse. This caused our
only hiccup as airport security insisted we took Gizmo out of his carrier
and through the body scanner, while the bag went through the x-ray. Making
a transit in this way meant that we were supposed to go through passport
and customs control in Toulouse. Well, Air France didn't transit our luggage
and there is never anyone there anyway. Nobody asked us for any paperwork
or certificates regarding any of our livestock at any point in our journey.
Once in France everything fell into place quite easily.
The local vet had all the information they needed about the UK regulations
and were able to issue certificates in English and French.
Getting a pet passport requires that you take
a series of steps in a specific order. In France these procedures take
a slightly different order to other countries due to the different requirements
of the French regulations. At present, France requires all dogs and cats
to carry an ear tattoo. Gizmo is now DWA 980. Although, I am sure that
he would have preferred a flying bird or an anchor. After the tattoo he
was vaccinated against rabies and blood tested. The sample is sent to
a national animal health laboratory. If the test is clear, then six months
after the sample was taken he can enter the UK. Gizmo's test was positive
and he was then given another booster vaccination and injected with a
'micro-puce'; an electronic chip, which will identify him to the British
government. Between twenty four and forty eight hours before he leaves
the country he has to be treated for ticks and tapeworms and Sherry has
to sign a declaration that he has not been outside of France.
It has been a credit to the vets that they
acquired all the equipment for this exercise, even though we were the
first people to ask for it.
The UK government posts detailed
information about its pet passport scheme at: http://www.geocities.com/bouffarde/Home%20Page/www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine.
Nothing has changed. The quarantine system required the animal stayed
at an approved centre for six months and now that approved centre can
be a six month residency in specific countries. Once the conditions are
met the animal can only enter the UK via specifically designated routes.
At the end of December we are going back via the Eurotunnel link. http://www.eurotunnel.co.uk/english/en-passenger/pets.asp