bringing a pet to canada? need help please

[palomo.aca]

Hi, im 14 years old (living in the U.S.A) and our family has just been aproved our PR and planning to leave soon (driving). My dog ,Tobi, is a chihuahua mix ,and we do not know what to do in this situation. Is there any way of bringing him? If so what are some things that must be done to do so? i am asking youi for help. Thank you.

 

[minna]

I don't know the restrictions on pets from mexico - but generally speaking you need to prove that your dog has been vaccinated against rabies in the last year. This must be a certificate from a vet - a current license is not sufficient.

there may be additional restrictions - you can find more information here: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/imp/petani/canine.shtml

good luck!!

 

[sbwv09]

Check out the link, but I've never had trouble bringing my cat over. Just had the rabies certificate signed by a vet.

 

[miguelre]

you said youre leaving from the us, right? then you need a certificate for your dog saying that he/she's been vaccinated, we are taking our dog Xavi to Canda from the US too. our vet said that that particular certificate lasts for 10 days, so be sure you get it right before you leave.
here's more info:
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/imp/petani/petanie.shtml

 

[Silver_Spirit]

Hey i just brough my 4 cats over from england with me. Its expensive.
They will need to be FULLY up to date on all regular vaccinations, wormed, fleaed. Then they'll need the rabies vaccination, and for this to be checked that its taken after a month with a blood test. And 7 days (no more) before flying they need a fitness to fly certificate from a vet (also known as certificate of health)
Then you'll need to look for an airline that allows pets, you can probably take a chihuahua mix on the actual flight with you as your hand luggage (just get a sturdy airline approved pet carrier) and they can go under the set in front of you. If not you will need to get a kennel (pref wooden) suited to your dogs dimensions so that they will be comfy, and then you pay the airline for them to have them in the hold.
At the airport when you land you state at customs that you had a pet on the flight and you will then need to pay immigration some money to check out your dog and make sure theyre healthy (about $150 for my 3 cats, $60 for one cat) Then you go down to the shipping bay where the animals are taken, give them your papers immigration gave you, then pay them about $60 for the pleasure of picking up your animal, then go back to immigration to give them more paperwork you will aquire! Then you're good to go.
If you're lucky immigration may bring your pet into the main airport when they check meaning the paperwork will be exchanged by them, but mostly its a lot of backwards and forwards! Have cash on you - they don't like accepting cards!

Have your proof of ownership with you, vaccination cards, microchip/tattoo number (if they dont have one, get one), and dont have a collar on them for the flight. Have the rabies (stamped) certificate and their fitness to fly certificate and any other vaccination things. You will also need to write a letter stating the name of your pet, the microchip/tattoo number and that they belong to you, the address they came from, vets address and address theyre going too.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions

 

[sbwv09]

Right.. I should have said that I crossed from the US via car.. so I didn't have to go through the process that silver did, but I imagine that airport travel is much different

 

[Silver_Spirit]

Lucky you Gatwick airport let one of my cats out! She was gone for a week before someone caught her! Then we had to pay for her tickets and vaccinations again!

 

[joecreosta]

Lucky you Gatwick airport let one of my cats out! She was gone for a week before someone caught her! Then we had to pay for her tickets and vaccinations again!

how much is a plane ticket for cat?

 

[Leon]

Air Canada charges $270 one way per cat on international flights, see http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/baggage/pets-in-baggage.html

 

[can_usa_97]

Wow, that's insane. We'll be driving by car with our cat if we keep him. We aren't sure we will be able to keep him at SILs house -who we intend to stay with for a few months till we get into a house of our own.

 

[iarblue]

Are you serious?Good god i would have gave them to a realitive lol.

 

[ChristyandRob]

Hey i just brough my 4 cats over from england with me. Its expensive.
They will need to be FULLY up to date on all regular vaccinations, wormed, fleaed. Then they'll need the rabies vaccination, and for this to be checked that its taken after a month with a blood test. And 7 days (no more) before flying they need a fitness to fly certificate from a vet (also known as certificate of health)
Then you'll need to look for an airline that allows pets, you can probably take a chihuahua mix on the actual flight with you as your hand luggage (just get a sturdy airline approved pet carrier) and they can go under the set in front of you. If not you will need to get a kennel (pref wooden) suited to your dogs dimensions so that they will be comfy, and then you pay the airline for them to have them in the hold.
At the airport when you land you state at customs that you had a pet on the flight and you will then need to pay immigration some money to check out your dog and make sure theyre healthy (about $150 for my 3 cats, $60 for one cat) Then you go down to the shipping bay where the animals are taken, give them your papers immigration gave you, then pay them about $60 for the pleasure of picking up your animal, then go back to immigration to give them more paperwork you will aquire! Then you're good to go.
If you're lucky immigration may bring your pet into the main airport when they check meaning the paperwork will be exchanged by them, but mostly its a lot of backwards and forwards! Have cash on you - they don't like accepting cards!

Have your proof of ownership with you, vaccination cards, microchip/tattoo number (if they dont have one, get one), and dont have a collar on them for the flight. Have the rabies (stamped) certificate and their fitness to fly certificate and any other vaccination things. You will also need to write a letter stating the name of your pet, the microchip/tattoo number and that they belong to you, the address they came from, vets address and address theyre going too.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions

Hi SilverSpirit, where did you fly into?

We're flying from Germany to Halifax with Condor (Lufthansa / Thomas Cook airline) with our 3 cats. $120 each. As far as we've been told, all we have to do is comply with Canadian government guidelines (http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/imp/petani/felin2e.shtml) - i.e. get rabies shots . That's it. Now I'm worried. Do you know why they made you do all that stuff when their guidelines don't say anything about it?

 

[giggles1985]

I believe that the fitness certificate and etc is a requirement of the airline, not Canadian customs.

 

[Silver_Spirit]

ChristyandRob - We had to comply with both UK and Canadian guidelines, i was just following advice from the people that organised the tickets for us, thomas cook airlines and DEFRA and our vet (who knew nothing about a fitness to fly!) We flew into Calgary airport who were very helpful considering we were extremely stressed and pi**ed off that someone let our cat out, called us from our flight terminal to search for her for 3 hours then almost made us miss our flight, all the time refusing to take our other cats into the waiting area where they would have been given water! (make sure you dont put any water in dishes for them - thats how ours ended up out)
Thomas cook were excellent with our cats. They overheard me and my husband discussing the missing cat and asked if ours were the ones in the hold, and then gave us updates on how they were throughout the flight. The captain also radio-ed back to gatwick to see if there had been any news of our cat since our take off.

That would be the other thing i would mention. They will tell you it is ok to have water in their dishes prior to the flight, thomas cook said it was, DEFRA said it was and my organisers said it was. ServisAir who do the actual pet shipping said it was not and decided outside on a hot day in a car park was the perfect place to open a cage containing two scared cats. They also shut the door on my other cats neck as she tried to escape.

Sorry mini rant there!


Oh and whoever checks them in make sure they have phto ID with them!

 

[ChristyandRob]

Thanks

We'll double-check with our airline again, just in case.

That's crazy, what happened to your cats. It was great that Thomas Cook gave you updates. This is probably a stupid question - how could they tell that the cats were OK during the flight? i.e. do they have cameras down there? I've been ''pre-worrying'' for weeks about how they'll do on the flight. If there's a way to tell if they're OK during the actual flight, I'll be well pleased.

Thanks for the hint regarding water - my boyfriend (who booked the flights) said that they told him to attach a bottle of water to the carriers, so the airline can fill them before the flight. But, when I mentioned this to him after we read your post, he seems to have totally forgotten about this : So we'll call them anyway to be absolutely sure.

Thanks again