Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Taking Pet Back to the US

Someone passed me this question:

My wife and I are returning to America in December, and will be bringing our pets, a cat and a dog we adopted here. Both pets are spayed & up to date in rabies shots, and have pet passports. My veterinarian here in [Taiwan] says that prior to being allowed to board a plane we'll need to get some sort of checkup / paperwork done. Could you give me more information on this? I am assuming that we'll actually have to bring the pets there to do this, right (since we live in [XXXX] it'll be a bit of a trek; do you know how time consuming the process is? The optimum situation would be if we could go in the day before leaving Taiwan, do our paperwork, spend the night at friends with the pets, and then head to the airport the next day.)

Anyone out there actually done this?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mordeth13 (I think his real name is Paulo) was able to ship a rescue pup from Taiwan to the States. You can find the video of both the dog pre/post rescue on www.mordeth13.com. You can ask him how he was able to do that.

Another option is to ask the Animal Rescue in Taiwan www.animalstaiwan.org. I believe this organization has helped place many rescues to new homes in the states ad they may also know the procedures of what needs to be done.

Also, each airline is different. Outside of a travelsafe carrier, there are different regulations that each airline may require. The travelers should call the airline and inqire whether the airline has temp gauged holding areas appropriate for pets.

Hope this helps!

A Dragon Abroad said...

Hi Michael. So you have the rabies, microchip and vaccine.
10-14 days b4 your flight you need to get your pet passports stamped and up-to date on everything, and health certificate from the vet.
Then you need to go to the Quarantine office ( Taichung Agricultural ofice ) in Taichung which is near Chong xin uni ( I haven't been there myself yet ) . There you will need 2 forms. A vet will check your pets out. He will give you a green stamp and Quaratine stickers which are valid for 10-14 days only b4 your flight.

Then you need to pay some tax on the other end.

Anonymous said...

YOu CANNOT get the paperwork sorte dout overnight if you are exporting a pet from Taiwan. The paperwork need a vets signature, the Ministry's approved vets stamp and other exporting paperwork. It takes a minimum of 3-4 weeks prior to departure. If you expect to do it the day before then kiss goodbye to the dog ever leaving. Also you need to ask many, many questions to your vet, you need to double check what he says because what the vet says and what the regulations are can be different, as I found out. You should also get a shipping company that assists in animal moving to inform you of what to do. They know the paperwork and so can act as a guide. I think some companies can take your animal to the Governments vet place, and all that. Its costly but well worth it. Take it from me, moving an animal from Taiwan is stressful. And 99% of that stress comes from vets who think they know the rules but actually dont. Mine, when I checked didnt know the rules and put the wrong chip in. Check exporting rules AND importing rules too.