Threat to put down pup in quarantine bill row
A PUPPY could be destroyed unless his owner raises almost £3,000 in the next three months.
Fluffy, a white Pomeranian, is at the centre of an immigration and identity wrangle.
Oldham council say he came into the UK on an ‘invalid’ pet passport, and don’t believe he’s the age his owner claims him to be. So the dog has been detained amid concern he could spread a deadly disease.
Government guidelines state owners are responsible for the cost of their dog’s quarantine. So owner Alyin Mehmed faces a kennelling bill of thousands and has been told if she doesn’t pay Fluffy will be put down. The 19-year-old insists the dog’s passport is valid – and that he has been vaccinated against rabies.
Fluffy, who Aylin says is four months old, was brought back to Oldham after she bought him during a holiday to her native Bulgaria this summer. Aylin, who has lived in the UK for six years, says she got all the required jabs for the Pomeranian and the correct passport to allow him to travel to the UK.
But when the family visited a vet on their return, he didn’t believe Fluffy was as old as the passport stated and alerted the council.
If Fluffy was under 12 weeks old, as the vet thought, then his rabies vaccination wouldn’t have been valid, so representatives from the council took him to Chesterfield to be quarantined for four months so he could get the correct tests.
Not only were the family heartbroken, but they now have to pay £2,710 in total for the quarantine bills – or Fluffy will be destroyed.
Aylin, who is studying a business course at Manchester College, says she can’t afford the bills and has set up a fundraising page in a bid to settle the costs. They have until January to pay the total bill.
The teenager, who is desperately trying to find a part-time job while she studies, said: “I’m so alone, that dog was like my friend. I spent every day with him. When they took him, I was so upset. He is like a baby. We have to keep him.”
Coun Arooj Shah, cabinet member for neighbourhood services at Oldham council, said: “Fluffy was examined by a qualified veterinary surgeon who said the dog was under four months old, which differed from the documentation presented. Fluffy was also travelling on what is believed to be an invalid pet passport. Oldham council, like local authorities across the country, operates under the government’s quarantine laws. If we didn’t then we’d be potentially putting other dogs and residents at risk as Fluffy travelled through a country where rabies is known to exist.”
“We are continuing to talk to Fluffy’s owner so we can hopefully get him home.”