Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 09:06:18 GMT

[quote user="James Laidlaw"]

We have had a number of illegal or suspicious passport cases with puppies from eastern Europe. I tell the client I am reporting it to trading standards and give them no choice irregardless of data protection. Fortunately City of London trading standards is based at the Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow who are on the ball and 15 minutes away and they act immediately. There is a legal obligation to report these which overrides the client's rights.

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

James Laidlaw — Tue, 31 May 2016 23:45:31 GMT

The last passport query I had in the UK involved repeated travel offences and many hours of phone calls to the client and trading standards and RCVS to eventually get permission under data protection to give the client details to trading standards to chase things up. After a few weeks of nothing I asked what the outcome was, and was told that under data protection laws they couldn't tell me anything to do with the case and that if the client showed up again to treat them as I would any other person coming to our clinic. I have since left the UK and gone into industry. Waaaaaay more relaxed now! The passport system needs a total overhaul and at present has so many loopholes and failures and difficulties that it's ridiculous. You either fight it and lose the will to live or just do what you need to do to go to sleep at night and "walk the line"...

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Rob Loxley — Tue, 31 May 2016 16:29:38 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]You must have a big stamp mine is fine[/quote]

The box on page 7 measures 25mm high; the diameter of the stamp is 35mm. Yes I know you can manage to make it look ok, it just seems the box might have been better sized

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Martin Atkinson — Tue, 31 May 2016 10:53:22 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]Vaccination box, rectangular and too small for the OV stamp clearly means we need to receive authorisation to make up our own stamp that includes our OV number. [/quote]I don't see the big deal in just writing your name, address, telephone number and OV number in the box. Your handwriting doesn't have to be so small you can get the lord's prayer on the back of a postage stamp to achieve this. Unless you're doing several a day I can't see it's worth getting permission and making up a special stamp with all the potential for it not stamping clearly or being the wrong way up!

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Bob Russell — Tue, 31 May 2016 09:55:37 GMT

Clearly a round stamp should go into a rectangular box! A square or round 'box', large enough to take the stamp, would be far too logical.

Vaccination box, rectangular and too small for the OV stamp clearly means we need to receive authorisation to make up our own stamp that includes our OV number. Odd that prior to this, we were not allowed to include our OV number on any other stamp!

At least they have taken lessons from Blue Peter and found sticky back plastic that can be separated from its backing without a lot of cursing taking place!

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Martin Atkinson — Sat, 28 May 2016 19:56:28 GMT

You must have a big stamp mine is fine.

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Rob Loxley — Sat, 28 May 2016 12:51:13 GMT

[quote user="Charlotte Marshall"]True but the box on your details page where you ARE supposed to put your OV stamp also doesn't fit it very well.[/quote]

Indeed

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Charlotte Marshall — Fri, 27 May 2016 23:05:48 GMT

True but the box on your details page where you ARE supposed to put your OV stamp also doesn't fit it very well.

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 27 May 2016 18:25:59 GMT

[quote user="robloxley"](who made the boxes both too small to fit the OV stamp in, with text that obscures the SP number; or with that tiny box requiring so much information)[/quote]You're not supposed to stamp the vaccine box with the OV stamp only the box on page 7! The box on rabies vaccination pages 'only' needs you name, address, telephone number, signature and SP number. OK still not a lot of room but no stamp needed.

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Rob Loxley — Fri, 27 May 2016 18:04:12 GMT

[quote user="Christopher Burch"]the owner was denied embarkation, on the basis that they may have been denied entry to the UK[/quote]

My understanding is that there was a penalty for the carrier if they land non-compliant pets in the UK, hence their concern.

The new passports have just produced more ways to get it worng and are monumentally poorly designed (who made the boxes both too small to fit the OV stamp in, with text that obscures the SP number; or with that tiny box requiring so much information)

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 27 May 2016 12:37:03 GMT

[quote user="Derek Lyon"] So I I say leave EU.[/quote]I fail to see how an incompetent French vet can influence your decision on this. If anything there will be more bureaucracy and more opportunities for them to cock it up.

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Derek Lyon — Fri, 27 May 2016 12:04:47 GMT

Similar experience returning from France once! Dog had to be given tapeworm treatment within so many hours of landing in UK. Vet stamped passport and charged me 25 euros. Then said give this pill tomorrow! I said no as you have just certified it has been given! So she then gave the pill herself. Imagine if I had lost the pill! So I I say leave EU.

Rant over

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 26 May 2016 16:50:29 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]We had someone not allowed back from France because their routine vaccinations were overdue by a month.[/quote]Well I hope they pointed at that this was not an issue and if they were inconvenienced sued the company.

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Anthony Dennison — Thu, 26 May 2016 15:19:55 GMT

We had someone not allowed back from France because their routine vaccinations were overdue by a month. Rabies was absolutely fine and well in date, all signed and correct. There are just some jobsworths on the ferries.

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

grumpyoldman — Thu, 26 May 2016 14:13:27 GMT

I have seen client tampering on all sorts of documentation on many occasions. Its usually out of date vaccination certificates ,particularly horses , If you look at it under the microscope its easy to tell the writer was not the same and different lights and filters will demonstrate inks of different origins , surprisingly black inks rarely contain the same things when from different pens.

It does seem excessively pedantic and picky , its a shame they resort to this sort of thing to make a living. I remember last Summer in Cognac taking my 2 dogs for their pre return trip wormers , they were both examined by the young man in an impressive tunic and loud aftershave . I would have been really impressed by his Ophthalmic examination of Brian ,had he bothered to switch it on and hold it the right way around. Brian was unmoved. I parted with my 90E and he stamped the documents. Checked out the interesting price list ,which was about 25-50% more than ours.

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Virginia Campbell — Thu, 26 May 2016 13:38:54 GMT

Pulling them on this would make sense if the 1 had been changed to a 0 but not the other way round.

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Bob Russell — Thu, 26 May 2016 10:19:15 GMT

Any corrections are going to be pretty easy to spot and are bound to raise concerns. The alteration/correction was not initialled so just might have been the result of owner bad behaviour.

This all ignores the fact that this is under the sticky back plastic and it does not matter if the chip was read in 2015 or 2005 as long as it was before the vaccination date! Also ignores the fact that these passports were not available that long ago.

If they are being more careful checking pets out and in to the UK then things can only be improving on the poor checks before. How many clients have let you know they were just waved through checks?

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Utlendigur — Thu, 26 May 2016 10:10:42 GMT

And yet they let Dogs Trust bring a cuddly toy with a passport 3 times without even checking there was a dog in the carrier

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-07-20/dogs-trust-smuggles-stuffed-toy-through-border-control-with-fake-passport-and-microchip/

RE: Warning to all vets who do Pet Passports

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 26 May 2016 10:06:01 GMT

[quote user="Christopher Burch"] it would seem that again minor errors are picked up on some ferries, and being referred to specific local vets. The cynic in me might draw some conclusions - the reader should draw their own.[/quote]I doubt there is a conspiracy going on here. I imagine the staff are just doing their job properly and know which local practices are able/willing to comply. At any rate it is probably better to be rejected on the way out rather than on the way back and be stuck in a foreign country.

I am aware of minor errors/corrections I have made and on occasion I have either taken the chance or issued a new passport. However I get the owner to sign a disclaimer to say that they have checked the passport and and are happy with each section which I point out and go through with them. It's doubtful that would stand up as a legal defence but it is just one more layer of protection.