Moving to Singapore continued from main newsletter page

2. Choosing a Veterinarian.  You should discuss your move with your veterinarian.  It is a good idea for your pets to have a full physical and CBC to make sure there are no underlying health issues which may surface before moving overseas.  Your vet should be supportive of your choice to move your pets as well.   

Make sure you have a complete understanding of the importation requirements of your destination country.  Read the Singapore rules below:

VETERINARY CERTIFICATION

The animal shall be accompanied by:

(a) a veterinary health certificate bearing a date not more than seven (7) days prior to export and signed by a registered veterinarian of the country of export describing the age, breed, sex, colour, markings or other points of identification of dog/cat and certifying to the effect that:

(i) the dog/cat was examined by the registered veterinarian and found to be healthy, free from any clinical sign of infectious or contagious disease and fit for travel at the time of export.

(ii) the dog/cat was at a minimum of twelve (12) weeks of age at the time of export.

(iii) the dog/cat has been examined by the registered veterinarian at the time of export and found to be implanted with a microchip that bears the identification code as that indicated in the veterinary health certificate and the vaccination certificate.

(iv) in the case of a dog under sixteen (16) weeks of age, the dog was vaccinated against Canine Distemper, Canine Hepatitis and Canine Parvoviral infection with at least two (2) vaccinations, four(4) weeks apart, and the second vaccination must be given at least two (2) weeks prior to export,

OR

in the case of a dog sixteen (16) weeks of age and above, the dog was vaccinated at least once not less than two (2) weeks and not more than one (1) year prior to export against Canine Distemper, Canine Hepatitis and Canine Parvoviral infection.

(vi) the dog/cat has been treated with a product effective against external parasites (fleas and ticks) between 2 and 10 days of export (state active ingredient and date of treatment), and with a product effective against internal parasites (nematodes and cestodes) within 4 days of export (state active ingredient and date of treatment,

(b) the dog/cat’s original vaccination certificate, which bears also the identification code of the microchip that has been implanted. The vaccination certificate also bears the details (name of veterinarian, name and address of veterinary practice) and endorsement of licensed/registered veterinarian who vaccinated the dog/cat and verified the microchip identification code.

(c) an export permit from the country of export.(This is waived if the veterinary health certificate is issued or endorsed by a government or government-appointed veterinarian of the country of export).

As you can see from the rules you must make sure you are very organized.

Some challenges we ran into…  Our dogs shots were done at a low cost clinic.  If you notice in the rules, the Rabies certificate must have the dogs microchip tag number.  Our vet would not write in the microchip tag number on the rabies certificates that were done at their clinic.  We had to go to the low cost clinic and have them write the tag number on the rabies certificate as well as initial it. 

This process may take up to 4-5 visits in the weeks before you depart to your foreign destination, work with your vet to see if they can minimize the number of visits.  In our case, the vet gave us the wormer and documented the date it was to be administered on the International Health Certificate.  The vet also allowed us to apply our own Frontline.

Your vet will need to be accredited by the USDA and must be physically located in the state you want to apply for your pet’s International Health Certificate (US Department of Agriculture Animal and Health Inspection Service (APHIS FORM 7001)).

For example, if your vet is in WI, but you live in IL, and the closest USDA office is in IL, you will need to choose a Vet in IL to fill out your USDA paper work.

Useful Websites:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/pettravel.html

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ncie/iregs/animals/

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/area_offices.htm 

3. Pet Movers versus doing it yourself.  You will need to ask yourself the following questions.

How many stops to destination?

How many dogs do you have?

How far to an airport which will transport dogs internationally?

Do you have the time to fill out all of the export and importation forms? 

With the distance we were traveling and the number of dogs we were moving it was not feasible for us to do the transportation ourselves. I was also not comfortable enough with the quarantine rules and requirements to risk anything going wrong in a foreign country.

Since arriving in Singapore, I have met several people who have shipped their dogs back as luggage and the dogs have done fine on their trip home.  It is very difficult to find out the real story from the pet moving company between shipping dogs as luggage vs. shipping them as cargo.  I did receive this information from Consumer Reports this summer. 

*Above, problems reported to the US Department of Transportation by seven major airlines between July 2005 and April 2006.  Neither the DOT nor the Airlines tracks the total number of pets flown per airline.  None of the incidents involved pets carried aboard.

We chose a pet mover, http://petrelocation.com, who was part of Independent Pet and Animal Transportation Association, IPATA, to assist us in our move. http://www.ipata.com/ .  Make sure if you chose a pet mover that they are members of IPATA, the trade association for pet movers.  They require minimum training and certification for their members. Pet Relocation.com was very flexible and had the best rates - $3,000 less then the other quotes we received.

You can employee pet movers to assist you with as many or as few of the tasks as necessary.  They will charge you for everything they do.

We used the pet movers to transport our dogs from our home to the airport. They reserved kennel space at the quarantine and transported them from the airport to quarantine. We were then responsible for applying for the dog licenses and their transportation to our new home.

Note:  This article will run as a continuation over the next couple of newsletters.  Look for preparing the crate for airplane, quarantine, having a place to live and things to bring with you when moving overseas in the upcoming newsletters.

- Jenaah, AAHI Adopter