Pet travel to the UK

If you’re coming to the UK for more than a couple of weeks and can’t bare to leave your dog or cat behind, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (defra) runs a scheme called PETS (Pet Travel Scheme) which explains the way you can bring your best friend along on the trip, without it spending six months in quarantine.

Under the PETS scheme countries outside the EU are divided into listed and non-listed. There are around 50 listed countries including the likes of the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan and pets can’t have been outside of one of these listed countries for six months prior to coming to the UK.

The defra website sets out all the steps you need to undertake to bring your pet here without quarantine but basically the dog or cat must be microchipped, vaccinated against rabies and blood tested and it must be done in that order. The pet cannot enter the UK until six months after a clean blood test result. Your pet must also be treated for parasites and tapeworms between 24-48 hours before travel. Pets in EU countries get issued a pet passport, in the listed countries you can get your vet to issue a third country official veterinary certificate instead.

If you arrive in the UK and your pet fails one the checks it will either be put into quarantine for six months or sent back to the country of origin. You’re allowed to bring a maximum of 5 pets with you into the European Union, but if you’re thinking of bringing your pet iguana with you it might not be so straight forward.