Passports for Pets - Pet Travel Scheme

Background to the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS)

Passports for pets (PETS), the freedom to take dogs and cats across Europe, was campaigned for by, amongst others, Chris Patten (Lord Patten of Barnes), the last Governor of Hong Kong.  The first campaigners for passports for pets was the Monster Raving Loony Party in the mid-1980's - a very individual UK political group led by Screaming Lord Sutch who sadly died before the UK government introduced legislation to allow free movement of pets.

The Patten family couldn't face the idea of putting their two Norfolk Terriers, Whisky and Soda, into quarantine, so the dogs stayed at the family holiday home in Toulouse until Passports for Pets allowed them into the UK on 28 February 2000.

Pet Passports had been under consideration for some time as scientifically, with the reliability of the rabies vaccine there was no justification in the quarantine requirement.  In fact, a House of Lords debate is reported in Hansard in 1995 discussing the introduction of passports for pets.

Passports for pets (PETS) initially just allowed travel by dogs and cats between the member States of the EU, subject to microchipping and rabies vaccination.  In December of 2002 this freedom to travel was extended to the United States and Canada, since when it has extended widely.

The Effect of 9/11

Quarantine had already been waived to allow US military explosives sniffer dogs to be brought into the UK following 9/11; legally, all US establishments where sniffer dogs were taken were deemed to be quarantine premises.  

The UK Government was under pressure from the US to allow the pet passport scheme to be extended to North America.  The US Ambassador held a party to celebrate the announcement of the change in the House of Commons. Prior to that US bases had been granted quarantine status to allow USAF to use sniffer dogs.

Passports for pets (PETS) has since been extended to include many other countries, and further extended to allow ferrets as well as cats and dogs to cross borders. Rabbits and pet rodents are allowed to travel without restrictions of pets passports.

By May, 2007, around 400,000 dogs, cats and ferrets (less than 100 ferrets) had travelled to the UK under the Passports for pets (PETS) scheme.  Many families routinely include their pets in their holiday plans if going to Europe.

Growth of the Pet Passport Scheme

Demand from pet owners has led to more airlines and ferry services offering facilities for pet travel; the scheme is becoming familiar throughout Europe and we have included a map of some veterinary surgeons in Europe close to points of departure who are familiar with the procedures. 

Be sure to check out the public holidays when surgeries will be closed.  The single most common reason for problems with entering the UK is failing to comply with re-entry procedures - planning carefully for the return journey is vital.

Language can be an issue so we have a translations of common phrases in French, German and Spanish.

Our Plans for This Website

We hope all information is currently up to date; if not, please let us know and we will amend it.

Any ideas about what we could add to make it more useful are very welcome.

Disclaimer

The campaign group Passports for Pets Limited have requested that we make it clear that we are in no way associated with them.  We are happy to do this.