Some dog owners say a temporary exemption Canada received from the strictest new U.S. rules for bringing dogs across the border is insufficient and the grace period should be made permanent.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that starting Aug. 1, dogs entering the U.S. from Canada, a rabies-free country, will face the same updated restrictions imposed on Canadian dog owners. High-risk countries.
Canada pushed back, and on Tuesday the CDC updated its policy, Rules for the three categories Dog owners must comply when bringing their dogs into the United States.
Two of the categories involve dogs entering the United States from high-risk countries, and the third Rules for bringing dogs from low-risk or rabies-free countriesLike Canada.
While the rules for bringing dogs from Canada avoid some of the most onerous regulations for owners, they still require new steps that some dog owners say could be costly and in some cases make travel to the U.S. impossible.
One would require all dogs entering the United States from Canada to be “microchipped with a microchip that can be detected and identified by a universal scanner.”
Daniel Dickmeyer lives on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia and crosses the border every few months to visit his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren who live in Seattle.
He travels with his 11-year-old black Labrador, April, who has been vaccinated against rabies but is not chipped.
“I know it’s a safe procedure, but it costs $200 here,” Dickmeyer said. “Especially on our island, we don’t have enough vets, and it’s a lot of hassle just to arrange the procedure to implant the chip.”
Lack of clarity
Health Minister Mark Holland warned Tuesday that the relaxed restrictions may only be temporary, describing the CDC decision as a nine-month “grace period.”
“We will continue to work hard to allow people to cross the border with their dogs after the nine-month deadline is over,” Holland said.
The CDC rules posted online this week make no mention of a grace period, and the CDC did not respond to CBC News inquiries Wednesday saying how long the exemption would last.
If the grace period isn’t made permanent, only dogs that are microchipped and vaccinated against rabies will be allowed into the United States.
That means if Dickmeyer wants April to visit his son’s family, he’ll not only have to pay for a microchip, but he’ll also have to get her two rabies vaccinations.
Under the new rules, dog owners are Complete the online form Present your digital or paper receipt to border control officials upon passage.
The form can be completed on the day of travel and is valid for multiple trips for six months from the date of issue.
Owners must guarantee that their dog has spent at least six months in a rabies-free or low-risk country. As long as Canadian dog owners meet this six-month deadline, they do not need to prove that their dog has been vaccinated against rabies.
Even more controversial, some dog owners say, is the requirement to provide an address of where the dog will be once it arrives in the United States.
Carilyn Barone lives two blocks from the U.S. border in South Surrey, British Columbia, and takes her miniature dachshund, Eddie, for weekly walks across the border.
She also often takes him with her when she travels south of the border to buy groceries and gas.
Barone said she always keeps Eddie’s vaccination record in her car when crossing the border and hasn’t had to provide any other paperwork until now.
New address requirements could make such travel impossible, she said.
“I’m not going to go to the address,” she told CBC News on Wednesday. “I might just take them for a walk across the border.”
Other dog owners told CBC News the requirement would affect their ability to enter the US to drive from one part of Canada to another, such as traveling from Sarnia, Ontario to Windsor, Ontario via Interstate 94 in Michigan.
Working dogs and the six month rule
Another rule of the new system is that all dogs entering the United States from Canada must be at least six months old.
Ariane Stewart, a sheep farmer from Maine, says she buys sheepdogs from a breeder in Quebec and relies on them to run her business.
“Getting a dog at six months old is a time when the bond between dog and owner needs to develop and at four months old it may be too late to start exposing them to sheep,” she said.
“This law makes it impossible for me to get the puppy I bought and paid for in Canada,” Stewart added. “Dogs can be an essential part of a shepherd’s work.”
Tim Arthur, president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, told CBC that guide dogs and other service dogs bred in Canada are often sent to the U.S. for training before they’re six months old.
“The ones who will suffer are the guide dog organisations who are trying to cross with their guide dogs for training,” he said.
Even with these new requirements, Canada The same rules faced by countries with high rabies risk Arthur said the technology had made life “a lot easier” for vets and dog owners.
“If the original rules had stayed in place, things wouldn’t have been any better,” Arthur said. “I think we had a very good negotiation.”
While Canadian dog owners are in a better position than they were last week, Arthur said she’s curious to see what the reality will be in a few months’ time.
