Kennel Club Responds To Pet Travel Changes

The Kennel Club, the largest organisation dedicated to dog welfare in the UK, has welcomed the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) proposed changes to the EU Pet Travel Scheme, but remains concerned about their long term effectiveness.

Under the proposals, the principle elements of the pet travel scheme for pets entering and leaving the UK would remain the same. These will depend where the pet owner is travelling from, but include mandatory microchipping, vaccination against rabies, blood tests, pet passport and treatment against tapeworm.

The new Regulation would introduce a number of changes to the EU pet travel rules, including the introduction of a new pet passport, veterinary record keeping and checks on intra-EU movements, as well as introducing an exemption to the rules on the number of pets allowed to travel for people travelling to attend a show, competition or event.

Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club Secretary, said: “The Kennel Club believes that these changes will improve enforcement and increase compliance, whilst helping prevent illegal activity. We are also wholly supportive for the exemption applied to the transport of dogs when attending an event or competition.

“However, the Kennel Club remains concerned to what extent these changes will be effective in tackling the current problems surrounding illegal imports. The checks on the Pet Travel Scheme will only work if individuals declare themselves as transporting animals. Within this framework of conducting checks, there will be a significant limitation on the effectiveness of enforcement carried out by carriers, regardless of how strict the pet travel rules may be, which the Kennel Club remains concerned about.”

The deadline to respond to the consultation is September 14^th. For more details, visit https://consult.defra.gov.uk/animal-health-and-welfare/changes-to-the-eu-pet-travel-scheme.

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Posted by chesliepickett on Sep 8 2014. Filed under World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.