Taking Your Cat To England

You'd be forgiven if, when observing my daughter with our cat, you assumed that we'd brought the cat home sometime in the last week. Several times a day I hear exclamations like, "I LOVE you Kitty!," or "You're the best kitty EVER!". Also, "Mom! Come and look at Kitty! She's being soooo CUTE!" Usually then she's doing something amazing like taking a nap on the couch. My daughter even has a blog devoted to our cat.

So anyway, when we first made plans to come to England, we knew it was essential for my daughter's happiness to bring our cat along too. I really stressed about this. I couldn't imagine taking our cat on a 12 hour flight, with additional hours for getting to and from the airport, all cooped up in her cat carrier was going to be good for her. It seemed much less traumatic for our cat to find some nice person to leave her with for a year. But my daughter's happiness trumped my cat's, so I started researching how to get her here.

At first it seemed easy. The UK no longer requires any quarantine period for cats when entering the country from the US. I looked into United Airlines and saw that, while they don't allow cats in carriers under your seat for international flights, they did allow you to check them as baggage in an approved carrier where they then kept the carriers in climate-controlled baggage areas. Their policies also required a microchip, which she already had, a rabies shot and a health certificate from her vet. Easy enough. I stopped worrying.

Then a few months before we were to leave, I started looking into the matter again, and it seemed like everything had changed. United no longer allowed pets as checked baggage. They only allowed them as cargo, which was much more expensive and much more complicated. I spent a lot of time calling various airlines and government agencies trying to get definitive answers on what the process was. It seemed like I got different answers from every person, with many people seeming to wonder why I expected them to know this information. Then I called our vet back to set up our cat's health certificate appointment, only to have the receptionist there tell me that our cat didn't have the right microchip. She'd need to have a new one put in, wait months, get a new rabies shot, etc. This about 6 weeks before we were supposed to leave. Augh!

That is when I broke down and called Pet Express. They are a pet transport company who, for a fee I first thought outrageous and finally decided was worth every penny for the ease and peace of mind of talking to people who knew what they were doing, will help arrange all necessary paperwork, tell you what appointments are needed, pick up your cat from your house, board her, bring her to the airport and check her into her flight, pick her up from customs and take her to your new home.

They took most of the stress out of the process. I still reserved a little stress thinking about how sad for our cat to not have food for so long on her flight, customs processing and transport time. It just seemed horribly traumatic for her. The day of her pickup, she was none too happy to be getting in her carrier. But it was really nice to not have her there for final packing and getting my family to the airport with our mountains of luggage. Then when she was delivered to our house, mewing to get out of her carrier, she was initially very thirsty, but not even interested in her food for a good hour. She spent time looking around our new house, then plopped down in our laps for petting, and seemed her usual, delightful self.  She seems perfectly happy in our new home in England.

In case anyone is thinking of taking their cat from the US to the UK, here is what I learned:

Air New Zealand doesn't take pets from the US to the UK
British Airways will take your pet, but only if you use a pet transport company
United Airlines is the only airline I looked into that allows you to arrange transport yourself

Pets need to be microchipped. It might officially say somewhere that it needs to be an international microchip, but as long as the microchip is a name brand recognized by your vet, you don't need to install a new one.

At least 21 days before you leave the US, but after the microchip implantation, your cat needs a rabies shot.

Within a week of transport, you need a health certificate from your vet. Make sure you vet has this paperwork - it's about 5 pages. Your vet also needs to be USDA accredited. Also, you need the original vet-signed copy of the Certificate of Vaccination. Pet Express wanted me to make sure that everything was signed in blue ink. I'm not sure if that's important or not, but they thought it was.

After you get your health certificate, you need to express mail it or drive it to a USDA Veterinary Services office for a Federal Endorsement stamp. This website has the relevant information:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/regulations/vs/iregs/animals/animal_faq.shtml#six

You also need to fill out a C5 customs form for the UK. It is found here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/c5.pdf

In addition to an Airway Bill and other paperwork from the airline, you also need to arrange clearance in the UK. There are separate charges for their services. It's about $100 more expensive to clear your pet on a weekend than a weekday. Their contact info is:
www.pbs-int.co.uk or www.shipyourpet.com

Your pet also needs to be transported in a IATA approved carrier. I bought mine from www.dryfur.com. They had extensive information about all the rules, including size, labeling, and food containers, in addition to guaranteeing that their carriers are IATA approved.

As you can see, there is a lot of rules, appointments and paperwork involved when transporting your cat to England. If possible, limit the stress and use a pet transport company. We did, and are enjoying having our happy and healthy cat here with us.