Pet Passports and The Irish Sea - an unholy alliance
As the wartime song says, it’s a long long way to Tipperary (where I live) and for those of us crossing the Irish Sea with our pets, between the UK and Ireland in either direction, it could be about to appear significantly longer.
Pet passports have been around for some years now. In January 2012, regulations regarding the movement of pet dogs, cats and ferrets between EU countries were relaxed, but left the requirement in place for any pet travelling between the UK and The Republic of Ireland to have one.
However, because there has been no indigenous rabies in the UK or Ireland for many years,compliance with the regulations was not demanded of pets travelling between these two countries.
Consequently, my wife, myself and our four dogs, have been a pet passport free family since we “emigrated” to County Tipperary six years ago. In the course of our twice yearly visits to the UK in our motorhome, we have never been asked if we have pet passports either by the Caravan Club when booking, by the ferry company when boarding, or by customs in Ireland, Wales or Scotland. Our camper with Irish registration plates and dogs in situ, has been inspected on one occasion recently and the worst thing to happen was that my wife was subjected to a pat down search! Our dogs regarded her with suspicion for the rest of our holiday, wondering why she and not they had been given a stroke by our uniformed visitor!
We have a visit to Scotland booked early in October, travelling with StenaLine from Belfast to Cairnryan and had no intention of re-visiting the question of pet passports until, in the last two weeks, rumours began circulating to the effect that UK Customs had developed an interest in them. With a pinch of salt at the ready, I could just about believe the account I heard of dogs being confiscated by customs from someone who had journeyed by ferry from Eire to the UK. I wasn’t so confident that I would be using any condiment when a message from our vet arrived a few days ago stating he had been informed, by Veterinary Ireland, that a pet passport was required for pet dogs crossing the Irish Sea.
A few phone calls later, the salt was at the ready, but remained unused by the time The Caravan Club Travel Service, StenaLine and Irish Ferries websites and a StenaLine reservations employee in Holyhead had all given me assurances that, in respect of compliance with EU pet passport regulations for pets moving from Ireland to the UK and vice versa, nothing had changed.
Despite this, I’m just a tad reluctant to re-unite salt and pepper, until I have it on good authority which, in this case probably means from the horse’s mouth, that there isn’t anyone out there with a story of recent trouble with customs over the absence of pet passports when they disembarked in Ireland or the UK.
If nobody responds and it goes badly for us when we make landfall in Wigtownshire on October 8th, we can be contacted thereafter in a dog pound, somewhere near Dumfries!
Comments
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I would love to hear a clear answer on this too, friends cancelled a break in Eire this year becuase they have two dogs. I would love to visit again but do I need a rabies certificate for our dogs and will anyone be checking for it? I've looked on Defra
but can't fathom it out. Can anyone from CC clarify this question?0 -
I wish I could answer this but unfortunately I can only add to dilema! We were told last year that we could not take our dog to Eire without a passport.....timescales were against us so our dog didn't get his much promised holiday. Upon our return we set
about getting all everything in order for our dog to travel on this years trip to France. We were then informed that to get our dog back into the UK we were required to visit a vet in France 24 hours before departure for an examination and certificate. We
checked with Defra because surely our vet was wrong.....no Defra said this was correct........Where were we to find a vet in France 24 hours before our return when we would be travelling on motorways from the South to the North.......once again our dog has
had to miss out as it just sounded to complicated........ We are happy to have a pet passport and have all the innoculations and micro-chips but finding a vet 24 hours before return when travelling around and in a country you don't know and don't speak the
language of..........0 -
Since posting this story, I've kept an ear to the ground in case it develops over time and a few snippets of useful information have come my way.
First of all, I have no experience of travel to continental europe with pets, but have heard the same complaint voiced by others about the logistics of finding a vet in a foreign country immediately prior to coming home in order to satisfy the pet passport
requirements. I suppose that the alternative of having to leave your dog behind in kennels, or seeing it quarantined for anything between three weeks and 6 months makes the hassle of it worthwhile for some.In respect of travel across the Irish Sea, the situation is (or was?) significantly different. EU law demands that pets on Irish Sea crossings have a pet passport with all that entails, but customs were not checking compliance. The recent word on the street
(in Eire at least) suggested that customs were now taking more interest.Enquiries made of DEFRA and its equivalent in Southern Ireland all generate the same response - pet passports are required - no mention of compliance checks. Another response given to a friend of mine last week was that compliance would be checked by Irish
customs but not by UK customs. A third response to a letter written last week by a prominent dog show journalist in Ireland to Irish "DEFRA" was answered to the effect that nothing had changed - pet passports are required for travel across the Irish Sea but
no-one would be checking for them.I am inclined to believe the last answer because it comes in a written response from the relevant authority here in Eire. Added to which, FAQ's on the Stenaline and Irish Ferries websites say exactly the same.
So, it would seem that the rumours which have been circulating may amount to nothing more than Chinese whispers at least so far as your average pet owner crossing the Irish Sea is concerned. Puppy farmers (and others) transporting more than a couple of pet
dogs, cats or ferrets may however have cause to beware and I suspect that this is where compliance checks will begin and end which, when all's said and done, may be no bad thing.I'll post again when I've made the return journey from Belfast to Cairnryan, provided I'm not shot at dawn somewhere en route!
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Like others I would love to know. We went to ROI earlier this year and contacted Stena, DEFRA and the Irish version of Defra. We recieved 3 different answers!! Stena said they wouldnt check but we should have a passport per dog, DEFRA said we definitely
needed one and Irish defra said no definitely not!! After a lot of emails we gave up, left the dogs at home and flew to Ireland.0 -
Similar craziness between UK & Eire. A week or so ago in Stranraer a check at one terminal oat the ferry port revealed that to travel to Eire via Wales (Holyhead to Dublin) one needs as a human a passport. Travel from Stranraer to Belfast, drive statraight
accoss the Irish boarder no passport needed and no checks. Similar question re pet passport and same answer applies. CRAZY.0 -
Although one swallow doesn't make a summer, I can report, having made a return trip from my home in County Tipperary through Belfast Port to Cairnryan and back in my motorhome with my wife and four dogs, that although our vehicle was subjected to a superficial
inspection on both legs of the journey (with the dogs barking like crazy at the high viz customs official, who seemed particularly unperturbed) no mention was made of pet passports, or human passports for that matter.So, it would seem safe (as you would expect) to travel to the UK from Eire through Belfast and back without subjecting our dogs to unnecessary rabies vaccination.
I have heard no more reports from any other travellers in the meantime so that I cannot say whether the same lack of interest would be shown by customs to pets travelling directly to or from the UK and Eire rather than through Northern Ireland. I will keep
listening and would very much like to hear what interest, if any, is shown to other members who make this journey with or without pet passports.0 -
Last time I looked northern ireland was part of the uk, passport would surely apply here as well.
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