Over the years, the regulations for a pet traveling to Europe have changed tremendously, but when it comes to 2022 and what information is necessary for your fur baby to fly, we’ve got everything you need.
Fur babies are required to have documentation for their transiting country and the destination country of choice if they are planning to transit through EU airports. An example: if your pet was traveling on the airline KLM from South Africa to Dubai. Your pet would need to transit in Amsterdam before reaching its final destination. They would need an Arab Health Certificate, a European Health Certificate, and an Arab import permit to enter the United Arab Emirates.
Another important note is that pet owners can only travel with up to five pets. If you have more than five fur babies, you will need to prove that your pet is older than 6 months old, as well as, participate in a sporting event, competition, or exhibition with a valid registration document of the event.
Step One when immigrating to the EU, fur babies have to be microchipped first. Any inoculations given before the microchip was implanted will not be valid. Even if fur baby’s rabies vaccination is still valid, but they have not received microchip implantation first, they will have to be re-vaccinated for rabies at the same time or after their microchip has been given.
So trust the process.
The process is Microchip > Valid vaccinations, including rabies, not the other way around.
Step Two depends on which transit country you’re entering Europe from. If it is a high rabies country like South Africa, pet owners will have to wait a minimum of 31 days after the rabies vaccination was administered to their pet. They will need to ensure a blood sample is taken for a TITRE test/ RNATT – Rabies Neutralising Antibody Titration Test. This RNATT will need to be sent to an approved laboratory for processing while you await the results. If the fur baby is in good health and fit to travel, they will wait three calendar months before entering the EU. (It’s important to note that fur babies will not have to quarantine during this process.) Some good news is that the RNATT is valid for life unless the fur baby’s rabies vaccination expires before booster shots have been given.
Lastly, it’s important to know that if you are planning to have a fur baby travel to the UK, Ireland, Norway, Finland, or Malta, they would require a tapeworm treatment to be administered by a vet for 1 to 5 days before entering these countries.
Fur kids arrive in the EU in the cargo hold section of the airplane. It is a regulation for all airlines transporting live animals to enter the UK and Ireland as air cargo. This is due to the handling procedures once the airline has landed. Once the fur baby has landed, it will be collected by a licensed agent and taken to the Animal Travel Station in your destination country. The parents will then collect and be reunited with the fur baby finally.
Should you want to avoid fur babies traveling as air cargo, alternatively, you could choose to have fur babies land in another country and take a pet-friendly ferry or train to collect them at the airport and take the trip with them back to their new home.