Cost of Importing Weim USA to England?

[Leslie]

Can someone tell me what it costs to import a Weim from the USA to England? I'm asking because someone is claiming that it cost them over 4000 pounds to import their Weim to England and I can't imagine that being true. That's nearly $7500!

[Wetdog]

I am currently getting ready to ship my dogs to Europe.

I do not want to take them as excess baggage for a couple of reasons. For one thing, my flight has two plane changes, and airlines will not ship dogs when the temp. is over 85F anywhere along the line. I'd be afraid I'd be on a plane whooshing away and the dogs would be sitting in a baggage warehouse somewhere.

It is 108F(42.2C) here today--and it is the hottest summer on record EVER. So, I checked out taking them to Chicago and putting them on an LOT direct flight to Warsaw. I was quoted $1800 each for two adult German Shepherds and one Weimaraner. All about 70 lbs. The price is figured however according to volume also--so that is using number 500 VariKennel.
The "extra large", 40" L, 27"W, 30"H.
I'm checking around to find a lower price. I'm waiting on a quote from an animal shipping company to see if I can get a better price/arrangements.

If you were to ship from the east coast of the US, you'd be starting out nearly 1000 miles closer, and most of the lower priced flights to Europe go to either London or Amsterdam, so you'd also have an advantage picking up there. Also, a puppy would not need nearly so large a crate or weigh as much.

Shipping one puppy to UK wouldn't cost you anywhere near $7500, my guess would be around $600, depending on where you ship from.

[Wetdog]

Paris would also be a hub city with bargain flights available, but London would have the most available.

[narelle]

Daniela would probably have an idea on this one.....

[daniela]

Is your friend including the cost of the dog (purchase price), board for six months and then shipping agent for flights? Are they flying directly to the UK or going on to France?

There are so many reasons as to what bumps up the cost (including whether you fly into Gatwick or Heathrow).

That figure is a little steep but if it includes any of the above, it sounds pretty accurate to me. We live in rip-off Britain after all. ;D

[daniela]

Shipping one puppy to UK wouldn't cost you anywhere near $7500, my guess would be around $600, depending on where you ship from.

Last year I contacted Virgin airlines who wanted to charge me a flat fee of £1000 each way for my dog....if it had been $600 I would have been laughing!

[Alkemist]

I know that when we looked at flying Anya in from Poland, it was a ridiculous figure that was quoted, we think it was about £700. It is supposed to be much better to fly a dog into Paris and then drive through the tunnel.

In the UK, you are not allowed to ship a dog as excess baggage, or at least that is what we were told at that time. The dog also has to come into specific airports, with specific carriers, that can deal with the documentation, and it will go into quarantine until the tick and tapeworm and rabies etc are verified.

TBH if you ring different places, you get different answers, and in the end we decided to just drive Anya home - but obviously you can't do this from America

Would be interesting to see what everyone elses experiences are.
Nina

[Leslie]

daniela said:

Is your friend including the cost of the dog (purchase price), board for six months and then shipping agent for flights? Are they flying directly to the UK or going on to France?

Not a friend. I've been sort of investigating as I thought someone was grossly exaggerating their claims of how much it cost them to import their Weim to England, but perhaps with boarding and all that, it's not completely unrealistic.

Thanks for the info.

[tasha]

wonder how much their boarding costs would have been? such a pity we have to wait so long in the uk because of the import restrictions, if you had the time and the money might have been cheaper to go for an extended holiday and take advantage of the opportunity and still have your puppy.

[Wetdog]

You might check on the quarrantine restriction--Irena was thinking about going to England to work a few months not long ago, and at that time there was no quarantine requirement, just a Rabies titer I'm pretty sure.

[daniela]

You might check on the quarrantine restriction--Irena was thinking about going to England to work a few months not long ago, and at that time there was no quarantine requirement, just a Rabies titer I'm pretty sure.

The Pet Travel Scheme allows dogs in to the UK (from certain countries) without having to go into quarantine BUT you have to follow the six month rule for entry or re-entry to the UK.

[tasha]

what do you mean by six months rule?? Once you've got a valid passport and it cleared the rabies jab date you can come and go so long as you get the worms and flea stuff done. I'm just waiting to see if my passport for bonnie is valid so that I can come see Mar, my vet can't seem to make up his mind.

[random]

Getting my dog from the UK to Sweden cost over £1,500

[daniela]

what do you mean by six months rule?? Once you've got a valid passport and it cleared the rabies jab date you can come and go so long as you get the worms and flea stuff done. I'm just waiting to see if my passport for bonnie is valid so that I can come see Mar, my vet can't seem to make up his mind.

You can go out of the country but you would not be allowed to bring your dog back into the UK until six calendar months have passed from the date your vet took the blood sample.

When did your bitch have her rabies jab?

[Wetdog]

I'm finalizing shipping Enka(adult Weim), and Dixie and Riga(adult German Shepherds) from Chicago to Warsaw. They will be flying KLM from Chicago to Amsterdam, and KLM from Amsterdam to Warsaw. The cost is US$ 2600, for all three(slightly over $800 each).

So why does $600 for a puppy less than 1/3 the size of my adults sound so laughable? Especially if you fly from an east coast city that is considerably closer to start from, and you don't have the second leg of the flight to Warsaw?

Fred

I am basing the price on 3 dogs, each approx. 75 lbs. each on a 500p extra large travel kennel(32lbs.)all 3 on the same airway bill on KLM: approx. $2210.00

Amsterdam to Warsaw is a same day flight. KLM departs daily from Chicago-Amsterdam at 4:30pm.

Animal Arkk services: meet you with the dogs at a location predetermined or at KLM OR meet dogs at United Cargo and handle airline arrangements, airway bill prep(KLM) documents check and security documents crate prep/labels, arragements with consignee in Warsaw. check-in service at KLM. walk dogs after check-in at KLM. $365.00 + depending on meeting location, etc.

health document requirements. I would have to check additionally, but assume the usual:

microchip registration of chip and date
current rabies vac, cert.
EU bi-lingual health cert.
APHIS 7001 USA Intl health cert.
probably USDA endorsement of docs.
import permit?

I don't believe there is any blood work or titres or tick and tapeworm treatments required.

We need at least a 10 day notice for bookings.

Many thanks.Please let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Carol



Carol Silhan
Animal Ark, Inc.
PO Box 725
Palos Heights, Illinois 60463 USA
office 708-448-4275
mobile [phone]
fax [phone]
email: [e-mail]

[daniela]

So why does $600 for a puppy less than 1/3 the size of my adults sound so laughable? Especially if you fly from an east coast city that is considerably closer to start from, and you don't have the second leg of the flight to Warsaw?

Originally you were saying that a guess it would cost around $600 to import a puppy to the UK. You cannot bring a young puppy into the UK until at least 10/11 months old. In some states in the US, I am led to believe a dog cannot have its rabies jab until around 4 months, from there you have to wait usually a month to go back to have a blood sample taken, then a further six month wait before you can bring it into the UK. So that now brings us to a 11 month old puppy - a lot bigger in size and a lot more money.

In April, I imported a Weimaraner from Canada, and the cost for him to be shipped to the UK was just shy of £1,300 (sterling) which is around $2,800 (US dollars). I am sure if I had travelled with him, and paid excess baggage it would have been cheaper but c'est la vie!

[Wetdog]

In some states in the US, I am led to believe a dog cannot have its rabies jab until around 4 months, from there you have to wait usually a month to go back to have a blood sample taken, then a further six month wait before you can bring it into the UK. So that now brings us to a 11 month old puppy - a lot bigger in size and a lot more money.

According to DEFRA Animal Health & Welfare site, I see the mainland USA listed as a non EU country that qualifies for entry to UK without quarrantine.

www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/pets/procedures/support-info/other.htm

[daniela]

There seems to be some confusion here.

The dog does not have to do quarantine BUT as part of the Pet Travel Scheme, any dog coming into the UK has a six months’ wait (from the date of a successful blood test). As the US in a non-EU country, which is part of the Pet Travel Scheme, this means that the dog still has a six-month wait before it can come into the UK. In simple terms, this means that for those six months, the dog can reside at the breeders rather than in quarantine.

[marjolein]

I have a bitch puppy at the mo, which will go to the UK once "she's done".
You have to give a rabies jab first, which can be given from the age of 12 weeks on. A month after this, you have to do a blood test (which has to go to a special laboratory) to see wether the rabies titre is high enough. If this is ok, you have to wait 6 more months before the dog can enter the UK (or re-enter). They want this, because the incubation period of rabies can be up to several months (maybe even years), so they want to be sure the high titre is caused by the jab rather than from an infection.
Once this is done for the first time, the pet passport will stay valid until the next rabies shot. If you'd decide not to give the jab, or when you're only a day late, you should have to start all over again.
"My" little puppy is 6 months now and she'll be able to enter the Uk in 4 months time.

[tasha]

this is where I have a problem, my passport is valid the rabies jab was done ages ago and doesn't need to be done till october 2007 but my vet is not sure of the seperate country policies regarding my particular rabies jab product... the recommended renewal for the jab is three years but in some countries they require it to be done yearly and my vet has had several people have the same problem of the dog not being accepted either by our side or their side of the boarder because of the gap in the product so I'm sitting here waiting to see if my passport will be valid on both sides.

I don't know what I would do if I had to come back without my dog :-(