Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Richard Carter — Sun, 16 Oct 2016 11:05:56 GMT

Have put this on our website.

Importing of foreign dogs:
We do not support the current trend or fashion to 'rescue' dogs from foreign countries. We have already seen too many disaster stories of aggressive or diseased dogs to think anyone is acting in the dog's welfare by trying to give a home in the UK.

If you are thinking of rescuing a foreign dog, here are a few things to consider:
1. These are not pet dogs being sent over - many are semi-feral and are not socialised to what we are used to in the UK. They are often street dogs used to fighting to survive and this aggression is not going to go away when you bring them into your home.
2. There are diseases present in these countries that may be brought into this country and have the potential to affect you or other dogs in the UK. The worst being rabies which is NOT always visible when the dog is checked and if already incubating, the vaccine will fail to prevent a disease which may kill you or your family.
There are a number of dog diseases not present in the UK but which are common on the continent - tick borne diseases such as Babesia, Ehrlichia and Lymes may have a successful outcome if the vet recognises and can get the medication to treat in time. Leishmania is a fly transmitted disease present in the Mediterranian countries which causes a long term debilitation, losing weight and the treatment is prolonged, expensive and needs to be imported and worst of all the treatment only suppresses the disease - the dog is not cured. A 28 day course to start treatment costs about E100.00 if you can get it.
3. By taking on a foreign rescue, the supply is often a van at a motorway station. You may have in fact helped an industry of very dubious origins where there are already reports of vans stuffed with dogs from 'puppy' farms coming over and then the un'rescued' dogs being ditched along the road before the van returns for another load.
The need to help may have started for the best of reasons but the worst of care is already taking place.
4. If you wish to help the plight of dogs in foreign countries, please support charities trying to improve the situation in the indigenous country. Many vets go on 'spay' holidays organised by charities to help get the unwanted breeding under control and there are ways to support similar projects to get diseases under control and basic care in place.
5. Our own UK rescue dog picture is not much better - most rescue centres are overflowing and are desperate for dogs to be re-homed. Many dogs in rescue are the result of family break-ups or losing of accommodation so are closer in temperament to what you would expect and if you are working the reputable rescue organisations such as Battersea or Blue Cross, proper checks for health, aggression and suitability for rehoming will have been done. Even if you cannot take on a local dog needing rescue, most rescue centres welcome volunteers to help with fundraising, walking, fostering and socialising of the dogs.

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Paul Carwardine — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 18:45:41 GMT

I have just read you blog ( sorry not a facebookist/ twitterer) and I could not agree with you more.

About 25 years ago I was involved in the our Local Authority's Rabies contingency plan - this included the provision to comandeer local tenis courts as holding pens for loose dogs - those that could not be rounded up were to be shot along with any cats. How many doting pet owners would relish this ?

The introduction of pet passports rather than quarantine gave the impression that Rabies was no longer a threat in Europe. Pet smuggling was regarded as an anti-social crime akin to drink driving, now it is no longer so.

My fear is that with this sense of 'there is no risk', someone will take a small pet - hidden in a car boot, to share their continental holiday, oblivious of the risk and avoiding the cost of obtaining a passport. or worse be tempted to 'save' that poor neglected kitten in the taverna and bring it home.

Then there is the problem of the urban fox population - encouraged by the idiots who feed them. In continental Europe the fox population was the main reservoir of Rabies infection. Imagine the consequences of a child approaching a dear little fox with the dumb form of the disease.

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Cat Henstridge — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 14:22:52 GMT

[quote user="Clare Tapsfield-Wright"]

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]

So my new blog is pretty timely then! (Written before this thread was started!)

http://www.catthevet.com/why-pets-is-the-pits/

[/quote]just read it , excellent. Very much enjoyed the children in the surgery blog too

[/quote]

Thanks! Please share it!

Cat

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Clare Tapsfield-Wright — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 14:16:09 GMT

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]

So my new blog is pretty timely then! (Written before this thread was started!)

http://www.catthevet.com/why-pets-is-the-pits/

[/quote]just read it , excellent. Very much enjoyed the children in the surgery blog too

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Cat Henstridge — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 12:34:41 GMT

So my new blog is pretty timely then! (Written before this thread was started!)

http://www.catthevet.com/why-pets-is-the-pits/

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Bob Russell — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 11:11:22 GMT

I have filled in the consultation paper. We need to put up the barriers where rescues are from overseas. Nothing wrong with a semi-permanent ban until our own stray problem is sorted!

Pets travelling with owners, fine if they really have to but even here owners are not aware of the risks they are taking by taking the dog on holiday.

Importing 'rescue' dogs via the passport route is not legal. Importing puppies via the passport route is not legal.

With Brexit one minor positive is that we will be able to choose if 'DEFRA' and the government have the ba+ls to do so!

If people want to improve the lives of animals abroad their money is far better spent supporting the charities over there.

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Paul Carwardine — Sun, 09 Oct 2016 18:14:23 GMT

I have always thought the pet passport introduction would be a disaster waiting to happen.

Sooner or later Rabies is going to rear its ugly head in the UK- and if it gets into the urban fox population God help us. Post vaccination blood tests appear to be no longer required. Does that mean vaccines are 100% effective ?

Tick treatment has been dropped - and tick borne 'exotic' diseases are appearing.

Owners seem to think it is 'nice' for their pets to share continental holidays rather than being incarerated in boarding kennels - but is in in the interests of the pet's welfare. Appart from exposing it to diseases it has no immunity to - consideration should be given to the stress of long car journeys and exposure to hot climates.

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Clare Tapsfield-Wright — Sun, 09 Oct 2016 16:21:55 GMT

I agree , ridiculous waste of money and an unnecessary risk importing disease. I can only assume the dramatic effect of saying " I rescued this dog from Egypt " is more rewarding than "I rescued it from Halifax " , where the rescue home seems permanently full of abandoned and unwanted animals of less exotic provenance.

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Rob Davis — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 17:29:00 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]We had a cat in recently that had been 'rescued' from Egypt.[/quote]

Yep, seen one of these too. Why????!!

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Rob Davis — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 17:27:25 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]I just don't understand why folk have this obsession with rescuing animals from other countries?[/quote]

I couldn't agree more and voiced my opinion on the pets travel scheme being used for this purpose in my resonse to the above survey. I hope others respond similarly - we don't often get a chance to voice our frustration on these things... let's not waste it!

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Anthony Dennison — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:47:39 GMT

We had a cat in recently that had been 'rescued' from Egypt. Once it arrived it came down with horrendous cat flu, and despite our best efforts deteriorated until we had to euthanase it.

Ownere was on the phone twice a day 'i've read on the internet...' and 'my friends in Egypt say this is common'...

Ridiculous. Some people have got too much money.

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Clive Ansell — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 18:31:04 GMT

I just don't understand why folk have this obsession with rescuing animals from other countries?

Second appointment this afternoon was a couple who have rescued a cat and a dog from Kosovo; spent most of the time telling me how many £100's it cost to get them back to Blighty to "save them from such an awful life" and do we give a discount for rescue dogs. (No, 'fraid not)

Yesterday afternoon I did a visit to a local rescue centre. They are bursting at the seems with stray and unwanted dogs, mostly Staffies, and are in the process of deciding if they should cull some of the older and less rehomeable ones to make more room.

RE: Pets Travel Scheme Consultation

Richard Carter — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 17:31:26 GMT

Good - we have ANOTHER positive Leishmania, this time a rescue from Greece.