| Taking your
Pet overseas
Taking your pet with you when you relocate to another country
will always be a harrowing experience, but not half as much as leaving
him/her behind!! .. How would you feel about being left behind without
your family. People that have transported their furry friends overseas
have confirmed that this experience is not half as bad as some families
believe.
Taking into account circumstances, you should always make sure you have
accounted for your pet before you decide to leave. There are excellent
transporting services, please see our Fab Links section for pet export
services. You can also click
here to see government regulations for bringing your cat in to Hong
Kong and import requirements to other countries.
We are often told that people decide not to take their cats with them
as they don't want the cats to be distressed, or that their cats wouldn't
be able to handle the quarantine. Cats are easily adaptable creatures,
and unless they are sick, cats can adjust as easily as you would to a
new environment.
Here are two emails recently received from families that have transported
their cats overseas:
26th March 2004
Dear Michelle,
Having seen your article on the Alleycat Watch
website, I thought I would send you a quick e-mail about my experiences
moving cats to and from Hong Kong.
I have two cats, both street cats picked up from
behind Sogo in Causeway Bay! In 2001 I decided to move to Jordan
(Middle East) and started to wonder about what to do with my cats.
As I have one cat that is very nervy and jumpy I was concerned about
how the trip would affect them and so decided that I would not take
them with me and would try to find them a new home in Hong Kong.
I did try to find them a new home but admittedly
very half-heartedly! Eventually I decided to bite the bullet and
bring them with me. I decided to organize their transportation and
paperwork myself which is simple but quite time consuming. The cats
were duly bundled into their large travel box and set off for the
long trip to Jordan.
Their flight took them via Bangkok followed by
an eight hour lay over in Dubai where they changed planes for Amman,
Jordan. The Emirates staff I dealt with in Hong Kong and Amman were
first rate, very helpful and concerned about the animals welfare.
They both arrived in Amman looking none the worse for wear and quite
lively and ready for action! Then two years later I decided to return
to Hong Kong, again I organized it myself and again the Emirates
staff were outstanding. On arrival the cats were fine and seemed
to get over their trip very quickly, I think they got over the jet
lag quicker than I did!
 The
only drawback of coming back into Hong Kong from Jordan is quarantine,
again I did consider leaving them in Jordan as I thought they would
find quarantine too stressful and I did not want them to go through
that. Jordan is a category III country and therefore on return to
Hong Kong the cats were required to undergo four months of quarantine.
The quarantine kennels are in Pokfulam at the government’s
Animal Management Centre. The staff there are very friendly and
helpful, the new kennels are pleasant and my two cats seem quite
happy and peaceful there they are eating well and still as lively
as they always have been. Visiting times seem to be very flexible
and the animals can be visited seven days a week including public
holidays and weekends.
Overall the cats have not suffered from their travels
and in fact have probably benefited from it – in Jordan we
had a big garden and they had the run of the outside that they quite
enjoyed! I would strongly recommend that pets become part of your
luggage instead of being passed on to another family who may move
overseas at a later date requiring the pet to find yet another new
home.
I grew up with a Labrador that traveled extensively
with us – Algeria, Dubai, Jordan, Indonesia and The Gambia
with many trips back to UK in-between contracts…we also had
a budgie traveling with us at the same time!!
If anybody wants to contact me regarding taking
their pets overseas or bringing them into Hong Kong (to allay their
fears of stressed pets) they can e-mail me on fionacredman@hotmail.com
Regards
Fiona
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23 March
2004
Dear Marian & Michelle,
Having visited your website, I would like to confirm
that cats, even older cats, do adjust remarkably well to travel
& resettlement in another country. We moved from HK to Australia
in 1996 & took 3 cats and 4 dogs with us. The one-month quarantine
was a breeze as the kennels were very well looked after, you could
visit, and the cats each had a lovely 3-storey heated kennel with
a huge window looking out onto a garden. The animals were weighed
on arrival and departure and we received a report from their carer
regarding their behaviour & how well they had settled in. Even
Chester, the fearful stray, survived the flight and the one-month
stay.
In December 2002, we returned to HK, this time
bringing with us 5 cats and 3 dogs. 2 of the cats and 1 of the dogs
had made the trip out from HK in 1996. This included Chester, who
was by now at least 14. (I first saw him in 1991 when he was already
a fully fledged adult capable of surviving in the wild with all
the stray dogs about in Sai Kung). The other cat, Pollyanna, a former
HK-RSPCA adoptee was almost 10, having been adopted as an adult
in 1994. 2 of the other cats, also strays, were close to 10 in age.
Chester & Pollyanna came straight home with us whilst the 3
Australian strays went to Ferndale for 2 weeks to learn to use a
litter box (having been allowed outdoors in Australia). All of them
have settled in and survived a subsequent move 12 months later within
HK. Chester is somewhat arthritic but still going strong. We also
brought with us an 11-year-old Rottweiler, now very arthritic, who
is unable to climb the stairs and hence misses sleeping in our bedroom
terribly, but he is happy to be with us and happy to go for shortish
walks in the hills with us. We keep thinking that he is on his last
legs but he still keeps waddling on.
Older animals can make the journey with you. The
trauma of the flight and any quarantine is not nearly as great as
the trauma of being handed in to the SPCA or other new home (if
you are lucky) late in life and losing the family the pet has loved
all those years. I have often heard people say that it would be
unfair to subject their older pet to the move, yet how much more
unfair is it for them to be virtually abandoned by their family?
All the best,
Kim
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