Ministry or Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Quarantine Abolition Fighting Fund
5 June 2000

TAKING PETS TO FRANCE

I refer to your letter to Andrew Beech of 20 May about the current requirement for pet dogs and cats to be accompanied by an official export health certificate in order to gain entry into France.

I am aware that this requirement can be an inconvenience for pet owners who wish to take advantage of the pilot Pets Travel Scheme (PETS). It is, however Important to remember that export health certification is provided in order to satisfy the animal health requirements of the French government. Until now these requirements have stated that the certificate, which must be signed no more than 5 days prior to entry into France, includes an attestation that the animal has been subjected to a clinical examination by the certifying veterinarian. This has meant that a new certificate must be obtained prior to each journey to France.

We are aware that the 10 working days required to process and application for an export health certificate presents difficulties, especially to French owners wishing to take their pets back to France after a short stay in the UK. In order to try to ease this burden we have been in touch with the French authorities to recent months about the export health certification they require from us.

We have recently been informed by the French Ministry of Agriculture that animals which have been vaccinated against rabies within the framework of the Pets Travel Scheme may enter France accompanied by an official PETS re-entry certificate. The only additional request made by the French authorities is that the PETS document must be provided in French. I assume that PETS documentation held by French visitors will have been issued in France and will therefore be provided in bi-lingual (French and English) form. This should therefore satisfy the French requirements.

There are still some issues to be resolved with respect to PETS re-entry certification issued in the United Kingdom but we hope that a bi-lingual version of the PETS document will be available for issue by MAFF-appointed Local Veterinary Inspectors in the near future.

I hope this latest development comes as good news for pet owners who wish to take or return their animals to France.

Yours sincerely

STEVE MORGAN.

Animal Health International Trade Unit