Taking Animals to Australia = Expensive

[MarkJ]

Hi Folks

We don't have pets.... but when we were coming back into Australia we were chatting to the Quaranteen guy and he said that avisiting yacht with a dog on board would be an expensive problem as the Quaarneen people would have to come and remove the poop themselves. You couldnt throw it overboard. The cost for a month of doing that would be abut $4,000 ($AU).

As I said, we don't have pets, but we were totally shocked and I thought I better report it to you.

http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/avm/vessels/less-25m/pets <Link

Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service - DAFF

Australian Quaranteen works on a user pays system so you pay the FULL cost of officials etc.

If you are bringing a pet here I would sugest you email our goverment first and get the full details

Mark

Ship's Pets [Dogs & Cats]

General Conditions
All dogs and/or cats on board the vessel must be confined in a manner consistent with the written directions provided by AQIS at all times. The general conditions for the safe keeping of dogs and cats on board international yachts while in Australian ports or waters include:

• Placed on a tether and locked below decks, when the owners are away from the vessel
• Must not be taken ashore for exercise by their owners
• Must not be taken ashore, without the permission of AQIS
• The master will ensure all animal waste is disposed of in a manner approved by AQIS
• The owner will be responsible for all AQIS fees and charges relating to the retention of dogs or cats on board the vessel, which may include quarantine surveillance, if non-compliance with quarantine requirements is detected during the vessels stay in Australian ports or waters.

[rebel heart]

Australia, New Zealand contributed to us finding a new home for our Schipperke. She's a lot happier on land now anyway, but these two countries certainly stack the odds a bit against having pets onboard.

[wantokex]

having worked and lived and loved in Ozzy for several years, I can tell you I am going to miss it. Due to their animal rules we had to take it off our list of places on our circumnavigation planning.....guess my macaw wont get to met his ozzy brethren, lol.

-Wantokex

[cooper]

Sorry NO sympathy. We have fought so hard and long to stop , what is common problems else where. Mark I am disappointed that you didnt put a positive spin on this.
I have my guy but he dosnt leave the country. His name is Cooper>
We have strict rules even between states. Flying into Tassie a couple of days ago I had the quarantine dogs go over my stuff. I realised that I still had fruit only moments before and handed it over.

I love my dog. But not enough to stuff up another countries "safe status".

The cost is to make it plain DONT bring your animals here. The reason is simple. You cant guard against an accident. The whole horse thing just recently proved that.

If you dont care try diving on somewhere that has had an introduced star fish and see whats left. seriously.

[cooper]

ps....check your costs now that you are back "home" in a real life situation. 4K is crap.
The dog could be taken to a quarantine station.

[Chief Engineer]

I think all countries should be more vigilant on invasive species.

Maryland has it's share in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Nutria, Mute Swans, Snakefish, Chinese Mitten Crabs, Numerous grasses and Trees, drywallhangers and concrete finishers, carpet layers, landscapers...and the well known driveway sealers

Now...our Knucklehead governor wants to introduce the Asian Oyster. Since our native oyster has been raped from the bay by man and disease.

We used to have clams here too....but the watermen scraped the bay clean of those.

At least we are trying to save the Blue Crab by not harvesting females...but that is a hard row to hoe."we are destroyingthe watermans way of life" bull you did it to yo own self.

[Fishspearit]

Originally Posted by cooper

Sorry NO sympathy. We have fought so hard and long to stop , what is common problems else where. Mark I am disappointed that you didnt put a positive spin on this.

Yea Mark, you should have put lipstick on that pig!! (My apologies Sarah)

Why is my inoculated, docile, housepet that hardly ever leaves the boat only a problem in Australia and New Zealand and not the rest of the world?

[andrejsv]

I dont understand the need for the regulations (no pets?)

I dont think it would be introducing predatory species that endanger wild life.. as a pet is supposedly tamed, would stay in the boat and not leave.

So is it fear of spreading some sort of sickness or epidemic? is that why the poop is not allowed to go on the water?

Could you explain what you believe to be the underlaying reason for these regulations? (they seem strange to me)

[Bloodhound]

Australia and New Zealand are rabies free and want to keep it that way. The UK may also be rabies free and have greater restrictions on pet imports than other countries. The import restrictions apply not just to live animals but to semen as well as a number of other possible vehicles for rabies.

[jackiepitts]

We also will be taking certain countries off our cruising list due to pet restrictions. When our dogs pass away we will not get new pets so perhaps we will be able to visit the off limit countries at that time.
Until then there are plenty of places that do not mind dogs onboard.

[MarkJ]

Holy cow, Batman! Talk about giving the messenger a bit of biffo!

All I did was pass on what the Quarantine bloke told me that I thought others should be aware of.

I don't own a pet so its not really an area that I know much about, except there's people we have met with them on board. I love everyones pet, but I know we are all on a budget. Perhaps for some, a huge fee like this is OK; some may find a better method of doing it. I don't know but at least people with pets now know to make some serious enquiries before its Lassie Go Home.

Anyway, Australia, New Zealand and other islands like Galapagos etc, have grown over the eons distinctly different from the rest of the world. Our country has quite a fragile ecology with fewer carnivore predators than most continents. New Zealand has almost no predators.
Also we haven't been exposed to Mad Cows Disease, Foot and Mouth Disease, Rabies, apple blight, potato blight, banana fungus etc.

In the past we have tried importing animals and totally screwed it up: The English officers wanted sport so they imported foxes and rabbits. Now they are an Australia wide pest. The cane beetle was a pest in sugar cane so they imported Hawaiian cane toads to eat them. But cane toads can't climb cane stems and the beetles can. Cane Toads are poisonous so any native animal that eats them dies. So now we have an epidemic of them.

Some goose took a possum to New Zealand, and what is protected, cute and cuddly in Aus is now a major ecological disaster in New Zealand. And when I say major, I mean major! New Zealand has (should I say had) many flightless and fightless birds including their national symbol the Kiwi that are now almost extinct on the main islands because of feral cats.
The Kiwis are trying to fight back by exporting apples to Australia which we say have Fire Blight, an apple disease... it all goes on and on.

Here is a list of the top threats to Australia - Notice that dogs can be infected with foot and mouth: High Risk Pests Found in Imported Cargo - DAFF


Cane Toad distribution.

New Zealands Offshore Islands: Offshore islands: New Zealand conservation

Quarantine in Australia
Governments and communities working together to protect our way of life
Australia is free from many serious pests, weeds and diseases present in other parts of the world.
So we place great importance on quarantine – in fact, Australia has among the strongest quarantine
measures of any country in the world.
• Agricultural exports earn Australia $32 billion each year. Freedom from serious pests and diseases
ensures this trade can continue, protecting jobs and bringing money into the economy where it
also benefits other areas of society.
• Some exotic pests have already caused serious damage to Australia – witness the effects of cane
toads, rabbits, and noxious weeds such as lantana and salvinia. Most of these pests entered
Australia before people understood the dangers of introducing plants or animals that don’t belong
in our environment. Now that we know better, we need to work hard to keep out new pests, weeds
and diseases.

[Chief Engineer]

It's their country and I don't have a single problem with them keeping out anything that even remotely would be a threat.

[MidLandOne]

It is no problem to import cats and dogs to NZ without quarantine if from a rabies free country and quarantine en-route can be guaranteed (generally requires the animal stays on the same aircraft for the whole of the route without off loading). Of course that cannot apply to non commercial carriers such as yachts, and airlines will on acceptance of a pet for carriage, quarantine the flight against all other non complying animal bookings (usually zoo animals will be given preference and the pet then bumped to another flight though). Airlines generally (all?) require that an approved animal courier handle all the biosecurity requirements (such as vet certificates), caging, land transportation and entry procedure in order to ensure all goes well.

From memory the current rabies free countries are NZ, Australia, UK, Norway, Ireland and Singapore. Hawaii is also rabies free, so is ok, but the continental USA/Canada are not (even though they are rabies controlled countries). As way of example of the en route quarantine, cats and dogs flown from the UK to NZ are not allowed to be off loaded or transferred in the USA while en route.

A few years back I helped a family I recruited from the UK bring their cats to NZ - the airline was very helpful and well organised having all the information and assurances (eg minimum temperature in the hold, was 15C from memory) all to hand and a brochure on it available. I suspect they find cats and dogs much less trouble to transport than the average human .

With a very few exceptions applying only to the UK and Australia all other pets are either banned (eg reptiles, birds) or require quarantine on arrival. I don't know what the requirement would be for a cat or dog arriving on a yacht and wanting to be imported (rather than just quarantined to the yacht while visiting), but I suspect it would not be possible or else very difficult.

[MidLandOne]

It is no problem to import cats and dogs to NZ without quarantine if from a rabies free country and quarantine en-route can be guaranteed (generally requires the animal stays on the same aircraft for the whole of the route without off loading). Of course that cannot apply to non commercial carriers such as yachts, and airlines will on acceptance of a pet for carriage, quarantine the flight against all other non complying animal bookings (usually zoo animals will be given preference and the pet then bumped to another flight though) and require that an approved animal courier handle all the biosecurity requirements (such as vet certificates) caging, land transportation and entry procedure in order to ensure all goes well.

From memory the current rabies free countries are NZ, Australia, UK, Norway, Ireland and Singapore. Hawaii is also rabies free, so is ok, but the USA is not (even though it is a rabies controlled country). As way of example of the en route quarantine, cats and dogs flown from the UK to NZ are not allowed to be off loaded or transferred in the USA while en route.

A few years back I helped a family I recruited from the UK bring their cats to NZ - the airline was very helpful and well organised having all the information and assurances (eg minimum temperature in the hold, was 15C from memory) all to hand. I suspect they find cats and dogs less trouble to transport than humans .

With a very few exceptions applying only to the UK and Australia all other pets are either banned (eg reptiles, birds) or require quarantine on arrival. I don't know what the requirement would be for a cat or dog arriving on a yacht and wanting to be imported (rather than just quarantined to the yacht while visiting), but I suspect it would not be possible or else very difficult.

[stillbuilding]

As MarkJ notes, it is not just Rabies at issue. I have a dog in Hong Kong which is unable to travel to Australia with me because of sub-clinical infection with Ehrlichia (Tick Fever) - common infection in Americas and elsewhere. Lives normal life in HK but clearly a concern that it would spread in Australia. PITA but cannot complain about the rationale.
No problem with trying to limit the spread of exotic disease.