I am leaving spain next week, our 2 dogs have been booked into the vets for the required worming treatment, their passports are up to date and fully in date with their vaccinations. all set to go.

the courier has just e mailed me and asked me to get a health certificate for the dogs . i checked before i left bulgaria and the vet said we did not need a certificate of health as we are going to another eu country. the courier says this exemption only applies to the uk.

anyone know the answer to this one, i have read defra and cannot see a need for this certificate.

Hi Starlite,
I have just checked with someone that takes animals every month within the EU, and he is registered and knows all the paper work involved in transporting animals. The answer is no you do not need a health certificate aslong as you are travelling within the EU country's. If you go outside of EU then yes you have to have one. He said you will not have any problems.

itchyfeet wrote:

Hi Starlite,
I have just checked with someone that takes animals every month within the EU, and he is registered and knows all the paper work involved in transporting animals. The answer is no you do not need a health certificate aslong as you are travelling within the EU country's. If you go outside of EU then yes you have to have one. He said you will not have any problems.

Thanks for that info Itchy sure that will help Star :Great:well done!

as far as i am aware, the pages in the passport particular page 22 is for health and worming which is very important clearly states that the dog is fit to travel. no need for a seperate health certificate, i do not understand why i am being asked for a health certificate. both dogs have updated info and clearly have full vaccinations, i dont see a problem. we have been on holiday and returning to the country we live in, so whats the problem. none from where i see.

we brought horses and dogs from uk to bulgaria. With the dog only needing a passport, with no problems what so ever and we had to stop at every border crossing because we were in a lorry carrying livestock, so im sure if anything else was required we would have been told . However if we had decided to drive via croatia and serbia then we would have needed a seperate health certificate and extra insurance. so you might want to check which way your courier is going.

we will not be going through croatia or serbia. i came from uk to bulgaria with no problems and just the up to date passports. went from bulgaria to spain,, again no problems, i just dont understand why this request has been made.

just been to talk to the spanish vets, the dogs do not need worming according to the vets, they do need a fitness to travel examination which is recorded on their passports, but they will check the 5 countries to see whether we need the seperate cetificate of health document.

gets more confusing by the minute, i will have the dogs wormed because the reading i have done i would not take the risk, the passports have never been looked at in 6 years. or maybe i will stay here instead. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

sorry to hear your having so many problems. It might just be that the rules are different for companies rather than private people. I have no idea what the rules are for dogs, but i know if we transport horses for other people there is a lot more requirements than there is when i'm carrying mine. Good luck, hope you get sorted soon

starlite wrote:

we will not be going through croatia or serbia. i came from uk to bulgaria with no problems and just the up to date passports. went from bulgaria to spain,, again no problems, i just dont understand why this request has been made.

I was going to suggest it was maybe because they thought you would be going through Serbia or Croatia, but I see you have already thought of that, but did you tell that to the vet.

yes we did, they noted all the countries we will be travelling through and checking each criteria for entry. personally i think its over the top. at the end of the day, legally, its the owners responsibility to ensure that the dogs have met requirements for travel, not the vets.
they will be wormed, they will have the examination for fitness to travel and the certificate if the vets say we have to have it.
never thought coming home would be such a nightmare.

we drive to and from Spain most winters and come home through several EU countries depending on which route we take and last time we drove through Serbia which is not EU and no one has ever asked for a certificate of health or for a passport or any thing else. The boarder crossing guys and girls in serbia played with the dogs no one asks for any thing

we got back without no problems, i did have the fitness to travel stamped in the dogs passports. no one looked at the dogs passports, but we were pulled off the motorway in slovinia by the police. document check, we were fine, but the police told us they were stopping all older uk registered vehicles as the romainians are using uk vehicles and have no correct documents. they have all sorts of cars that you would never believe were police cars and they are monitoring from the motorways services. just make sure you documents are correct.

pleased to hear you had a good journey back. I's so much cooler here now then it has been so keep warm. You will miss the spainish weather now.
:: through out spain are saying how cold it is there now

but, i never expected snow on my return, this is barmy. :Snow window:

I have been posting that winter is not over yet and we might still get snow. This is not so unusual - just sad after such a lovely warm start to Spring. This very cold spell is all over Europe and some countries have had it much worse than Bulgaria particularly Britain. Anyway - glad you had a troublefree journey back Starlite.