Bringing pets into the UK

[ChrisH]

Quarantine rules are lifted (http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=354232)

[aly]

Thats SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I don't have to worry JUST IN CASE I ever have to move to London, hehe :)

[Heather Wallace]

Hi Chris yes I had heard of this. i think it also applies to Australia.

Do you think this is a good thing. I'm not sure since there was a case report recently in Scotland of a man having rabbies.

[ChrisH]

Heather - Yes, I do think it is a good thing for the quarantine laws to be lifted. Pets can already go back and forth across the channel, so why not further afield. As long as the strict criteria is upheld that is.
It was real scary, wasn`t it, the death of the Scottish man from rabies? He was a conservation worker who contracted it from a European bat bite, and I believe that the tests regulary done on these bats have shown that it is a rare for them to have it. The only query I have on his death is, why, he hadn`t he had the vaccine, or whatever it is, as a protection as he did such a lot of work with these creatures? Maybe because it is such rare thing to happen he thought he was safe.

[Edwina's Secretary]

I was pleased to read about the lifting of the quarantine. I have long said that if certain political eventualities should come to pass I would be looking to move elsewhere (my poor apolitical husband says..."could it at least be a place where English is spoken????")

And of course, it would have to be a place where Edwina could accompany us so now our options have been expanded!

And if the animal has proof of current vaccinations....why quarantine?