Help Stop the New Dog Importation Regulations Before It’s Too Late!

By Pilar Kuhn

On May 13, the CDC published new federal dog importation regulations that go into effect August 1st. (Federal Register, Document Number 2024-09676).

In a shocking example of government overreach that will have negative effects on dog lovers and small businesses nationwide, the 311-page document is a poorly written and unactionable “one size fits all” solution for the importation of dogs from every country in the world with no exemptions for the military, government employees working abroad, or service dogs in training as puppies.

COVID drove demand for dogs beyond the supply available in the US, and some rescue groups and dog brokers took a “back door” approach and used forged documentation to import dogs to meet demand. Not only are the new regulations impossible to comply with, they put families and pet owners traveling with their dogs in the barracks with “bad dog transporters”, are expensive to implement for “good” companies and agencies trying to comply with the CDC’s demands, and many airlines may halt air travel for dogs altogether.

The regulations have a negative impact on the airline industry by putting passenger service employees in a “policing” role regarding international paperwork. The airlines don’t move swiftly with regulation changes, and they could decide not to ship any animals at all from foreign ports into the U.S. which would strand families and animals worldwide. Some foreign carriers have already initially denied animals their travel looking for paperwork that doesn’t exist or gone into effect yet. Per the new regulations, Customs and Border Patrol is to handle hand-carries and excess baggage entries with airway bills, but the airway bill system is not how official customs entries are handled for these types of transports. A federal regulation should not have a “work around” when there is a clear and currently active system for these types of imports.

The regulations as currently published do not take into consideration NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) that considers business and commerce between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico since, in these pending regulations, both Canada and Mexico are treated like every other country in the world.

The CDC did not truly consult “frontline stakeholders” that are responsible for moving dogs around the world every day.

The Congressional Review Act, while rarely used, exists to have these kinds of regulations pulled. Many think the CDC needs to go back to the drawing board and work on regulations that make more sense and are actionable.

“The CRA is a tool Congress can use to overturn certain federal agency actions. The CRA was enacted as part of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act in 1996. A CRA joint resolution of disapproval is introduced in the same way as any other bill. However, the joint resolution must be introduced within a specific time frame: during a 60-days-of-continuous-session period beginning on the day Congress receives the rule. For the CDC Regulation regarding the Importation of Dogs, that 60-day period began on May 13, 2024.”

Is there anything that can be done, or are these new regulations set in stone as of August 1st?

Please copy the paragraphs above and email to your local representative. All congressmen and woman have an email address that ends with “@mail.house.gov” and the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Here is as handy link to find your representative:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

For more information about the Congressional Review Act visit:

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10023

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=290260

Posted by AnthonyA on Jun 20 2024. Filed under Current Articles, Editorial, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.