Dog World article about tightening up the Pet Passport Scheme

Changes made to pet travel scheme to deter puppy traffickers
Created: 23/04/2014

THE INCREASE in the number of puppies and dogs being imported from Eastern Europe has led DEFRA to make several changes to the pet travel scheme.

Action has been taken as fears grow about disease being brought to the UK, and the welfare of the animals being transported and breeding stock in the EU countries involved.

The changes include the introduction of a blanket minimum age of 12 weeks for the puppies to be vaccinated against rabies; there will be additional passport security features – including a laminated page for the animal’s details, information on the vet who issues the passport; and the inclusion of a unique passport number on each page.

A new checking provision will require all member states to carry out checks on intra-EU movements.

The changes, which will come into force on December 29, have been welcomed by Robin Hargreaves, president of the British Veterinary Association, who said the fears about the welfare dogs being transported across Europe and unregulated breeding on a ‘very large scale’ was ‘very real, very significant and happening now’.

"The only way to tackle it is to stop the trade,” he told DOG WORLD.

Speaking recently at the British Small Animals Veterinary Association congress, Deborah Wells, head of DEFRA’s pet and rabies policy team, said that imposing a new minimum age of 12 weeks for rabies vaccination would create a consistent regime across Europe.

The current requirement is that the vaccine should be administered in line with the manufacturers’ guidelines in the member state in which it was given, and this has led to complications and confusion as different rabies vaccines are licensed for use at different ages in different states, which makes it difficult to know whether the puppy has been vaccinated at the right age.

The new passport will be less easy to tamper with, she said, harder to forge and will provide more information making it easier to trace animals and the vets involved in preparing the animals for travel.

It will also have more details of the veterinary practice which issued the passport, and will give a ‘valid from’ date on the rabies vaccination page as well as the vaccination date itself and the date of expiry. This will spell out that people need to wait three weeks after vaccination before the animal can travel, she said.

There will also be new wording for the clinical examination carried out by vets which will state that the animal must not show clinical signs of disease and is fit to be transported, as opposed to the current instructions that the animal is in good health and should be able to withstand carriage.

There will be more pages for people to record treatments, and vets will be asked to keep records of the location of the chip, date of reading it, chip number, the dog’s details, name and contact information of the owner and passport number, and these records must be kept for at least three years.

Illegal imports

Also under the new regulation, all EU countries will be required to carry out compliance checking, something not enforced under the current regulation.

An animal health inspector at Heathrow Airport said the number of animals, mainly dogs and cats, travelling under the pet travel scheme had risen from 8,000 in 2011 to 150,000 in 2012 due to the relaxation in the scheme’s rules.

As reported in the Veterinary Record, Sharon Edwards said the illegal importation of puppies was a growing concern in the UK.

People were buying puppies online, taking them to the vet and finding out that the documentation was false, she said. There had been an occasion where the passport claimed the puppy was between 19 and 20 weeks old but two vets who assessed it said it was no more than ten weeks. This meant the date of birth on the passport was fraudulent, and as a result the puppy went into quarantine.

Alterations to passports was another problem, Ms Edwards said, including mismatches between the microchip number scanned from the animal and that on the passport. The sex or breed of the animal did not always match the passport’s description; or there was no record of tapeworm treatment or the passports were fake.

Another problem, she explained, was that it is hard to prove that puppies coming in are declared at the port of entry as no documentation is issued to prove they have been checked at that stage.

Another speaker at the congress, Joe Moran, the RSPCA’s senior parliamentary adviser in European affairs, said that the pet passport system was being exploited by illegal traders for commercial purposes. Puppies were being imported from central and Eastern European countries and the rules on non-commercial movements were being ‘flouted’, he said.

The lack of checks caused ‘huge welfare implications for disease outbreaks, particularly rabies’, he said.

Mr Hargreaves said he welcomed any changes which made it easier to trace the dog’s history and the vet who had prepared it for travel, as he had concerns about the animal’s age being determined and being able to trace the vet involved.

"Unlike England, on the Continent it is not possible to track the animal back to where certification took place, so it will be a significant deterrent if vets are made aware that if they are cavalier with the age of the animal or other details they may be held accountable,” he said.

"There is a tranche of people abusing the system and using it to bring in animals for commercial sale. We are confident that is happening and they want animals to be as young as possible because that makes them more saleable. I have seen a prototype of the new passport and the fact that it is laminated once it is signed makes it hard to re-write or alter.”

However, Mr Hargreaves said that the opportunity was still there for those who were determined to abuse the system.

"It tightens it up, certainly, but it remains to be seen how it will operate,” he said. "There may be loopholes. And we have made the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories and DEFRA aware of our concerns, particularly about the welfare of puppies in transport. These animals are carted all across Europe in inappropriate vehicles. We have concern also about the breeding stock. We worry about where these animals are coming from, what environment they are bred in and whether they are part of criminal activity.

"Any fears we have about puppy farming in the UK and Ireland are probably nothing compared to what it’s like in Eastern Europe; animal welfare would be minimal if at all.

"Another issue is the potential importation of disease, but it is important to keep the two concerns separate – as the welfare issue is a colossal problem while there is only a small risk of the importation of rabies. It’s not impossible but it’s very small – although certainly bigger than it used to be, and smuggling puppies is the biggest disease risk.

"One has to get things in proportion. We don’t want to scare people. The welfare problem of transporting dogs all over Europe and unregulated breeding on a very large scale is very real, very significant and happening now. We know that and the only way to tackle it is to stop the trade.

"The puppy buyers themselves have to take responsibility. They must be more careful and source puppies responsibly. They should ask questions and buy from reputable breeders – and in this regard we want people to get behind our puppy contract.”

Problems with an imported dog come to light most often when it is taken to a vet, Mr Hargreaves said.

"It is then that it is realised that the pet passport has been forged or has false details or is incomplete, or the puppy has not fulfilled other requirements of the pet travel scheme,” he said.

"People should be contacting their vet for advice before they buy a puppy. We would say be patient, go to a reputable breeder; if people did that the import trade would be reduced dramatically.”
- See more at: http://www.dogworld.co.uk/product.php/112835/1/changes_made_to_pet_travel_scheme_to_deter_puppy_traffickers/840c58b6a1453a4b1296ec6a3c05ab22#sthash.zXqZmed7.dpuf

Wendy wrote:It won't be long before we have rabies.

Shisa wrote:What saddens me is what is going to happen to the puppies and dogs turned back.

Eleanor wrote:It is sad. :(Especially as it could all be prevented, if the people responsible for the puppy farming actually developed a conscience.