Travellers face bewildering paperwork
Access-to-information request reveals the issues with taking animals abroad
The eastern Ontario man who was moving to China was frantic, making call after call to Canadian government offices to rescue his two cats from quarantine.
They arrived last August without the proper paperwork, and Chinese officials told him that after a week in quarantine they might be given back to him — or they might be killed.
The man had proof of rabies shots and an international health certificate from a vet, but he didn’t have an export certificate from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which oversees animal and plant exports. That was a problem, because the CFIA won’t issue these certificates after an animal leaves Canada.
The sad tale of cats comes up in documents from the CFIA obtained under an access-to-information request by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin. They tell stories of the tiny dramas unfolding as Canadians travel with pets and run afoul of bewildering international rules.
Bunnies, ducklings and dogs that need to leave the secure part of an airport to pee: It’s all here.
The cat owner who ran into trouble when he arrived in China is from Alexandria, Ont., but his name is deleted.
The CFIA dug in its heels on this one, the emails show.
“It is unfortunate that the owner did not contact the Canadian Food Inspection Agency prior to departure in order to secure the necessary documentation as CFIA does not issue export certificates for animals that have already left the country,” the agency wrote.
It offered a letter confirming that the cat had received a rabies shot and passed a health check. But China wanted an official certificate, period.
Another option — fly the cats back to Canada, get the papers, and travel back to China — wouldn’t work, the owner said in a lengthy letter. The owner was willing to pay the full cost, but added that “we only have temporary visas and these do not allow for multiple entries” to China. “I have tried to fly them out as cargo, but it is too hot in (phrase deleted) for the moment.”
He told the CFIA that if it’s willing to say in a letter that the cats were healthy and vaccinated, it should be willing to say the same thing in a certificate. He threatened to sue and to call in animal welfare groups.
“To have my cats euthanized because I unknowingly failed to get two certificates completed and stamped by CFIA is severe and inhumane. I assure you I will not let this go,” he wrote.
He wasn’t alone. A cat that arrived in South Korea with no certificate was met with the same refusal to issue one after the fact.
A chihuahua owner left Calgary and arrived somewhere in the European Union two days later with a dog that had no certificate. He or she got the same response from the CFIA.
Another dog owner had the frustrating problem of arriving in a foreign country with a certificate stamped by the agency that had been filled out improperly by the vet. He had part of the form used for pets and part of the form for commercial livestock. Also, the documents were filled out wrong.
“The private veterinarian mixed the paper by mistake,” a CFIA staffer writes, and in this case they were able to correct the error and fasttrack the new certificate to Europe.
Another dog arrived in Europe with the proper certificate, but no signature on it. That wouldn’t do, the EU said. BlackBerry 10s were soon humming from Ottawa to Brussels on that one, and the CFIA expected the dog would be sent back to Calgary to try again.
These are all countries that have formal arrangements with Canada. There are also countries with no arrangements, which means travellers haven’t a rule book for guidance. Here’s one such case: “I have an urgent question from Montreal East. An exporter wishes to export 500 ducklings to (country deleted) on Monday.” And it’s a country with no export agreements with Canada.
The CFIA says it can’t check all those birds for poultry disease so quickly, and emphasizes that the lack of an agreement makes the whole business a gamble.
It concludes: “Exporter should know they are taking all of the risks. I suggest putting this in writing.”
Many requests went through smoothly: There’s a certificate for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, sending lab mice abroad. (Lab mice are bred in many specific strains for different types of disease research.)
Some are secret: Eleven pages involving questions about exporting goats are entirely blacked out as confidential.
Some are just odd. A dog owner was going to change planes in a foreign country. She wanted to take her dog outside to relieve itself. Does that mean she is entering that country, and does she need appropriate paperwork?
CFIA: You betcha. In fact, just connecting through a foreign airport means she will need an export certificate.
The fate of the cats in China and Korea, whether dead or alive, remains unknown. The CFIA’s cat expert is on vacation.