Importing Pets

[pashnit]

hello

How do we go about getting our pets in to Thailand/ My (Thai) wife and I would like to live in Thailand for an extended period. We have a very close relationship with our two pet cats, so close my wife has not returned to Thailand for over four years. She will not part with them or put them in kennels.

If we stay in Thailand we know we could not return to the UK with our pets. So we would wait until they die before returning.

However we could not allow the animals to be put in quarantine in Thailand either so this idea may not get of the ground. Any information on this topic would be appreciated.

Thanks?

[tuktukmike]

Hi

We are doing the same and it looks like no problem.

First we had to find a local DEFRA registered vet in the UK luck was on our side as our vet is registered.

Your cats must have the usual vacs and you will be given a form to send to DEFRA and they will ask you for a Date of travel. the export certificate will be sent out to your veterinary inspector 7-10 days before departure.

You must then arrange for your vet to check your cats within 72hours of your departure at which time he will give you the export certificate signed and dated.

You can contact your airline (in my case Emirates) and if they have a cargo division they will rent export cages to you and deliver them to your house in UK. They will want to know the size of your cats so that you get the right size container.

Then you must take them with you to airport as accompanied baggage and check them in at the cargo section of your airline, we were a little worried about the rabies vacs but as long as you are flying direct or just changing planes you should have no problem.

Having said that i would get the rabies jabs as soon as you can once they have arrived and settled in Thailand.

We have been assured by the Thai authorites that going down this route you will not have to leave your cats in the hands of the thai quarintine system for a month.

However if you send them as animal cargo ie not accompanied you will then have to pay for one months quarintine,

Hope this helps and if it helps and i can learn how to scan and display on here i would be happy to show DEFRA letters.

Mike.