Hi Rachel,Thanks so much for the incredibly helpful information, Emily!
I just have time to pen a quick note about importing a dog to Bosnia.
We investigated the different options pretty thorougly, but being Bosnia everything can change very quickly, particularly as they are tightening up the borders in preparation for becoming a candidate for joining the EU.
Bosnia is a part of the UK PETS scheme, which means that we can re-import Jessie back into the UK as long as we keep all her innoculations current and conform with all the conditions for PETS. One of the conditions is that she is given an EU Pet Passport which is only given when they have been microchipped and innoculated against rabies. The passport is valid as long as her innoculation is valid.
Not all European countries are part of PETS (Serbia isn't for example) and if she goes to a country that isn't a part of PETS then she won't be allowed back into the UK without spending 6 months in quarantine.
We looked into flying her into Bosnia, but there isn't an airport that is capable of dealing with the importing of dogs. Sarajevo would be the most likely candidate (and this may change in the future) but as of August 2008 they said that they could not handle importation of any dogs.
This left us with a few options:
1. We could fly her to a neighbouring country and drive from there. Given Serbia is not part of PETS that left us with Croatia. 2 airports in Croatia were candidates: the capital Zagreb (6 hours drive from where we live) or the coastal down of Dubrovnik (9 hours drive). Dubrovnik is a bit of an ex-pat and tourist centre, so although it was further it was easier to find people who could import her there than to Zagreb.
2. We could drive her through Europe.
Option 2 was a lot cheaper, and as we were driving to Bosnia anyway seemed to make the most sense.
So... then the logistics. This is best expressed as The Theory and The Practice:
Theory:
1. Obtain an EU pet passport (for which you need a current rabies innoculation and blood test)
2. Check the EU passport is equivelent for all the countries you plan to pass through. We travelled through France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and finally Bosnia.
3. EU countries are all fine with just a pet passport BUT some issues regarding the rabies vaccination. The UK vacinnation was valid for 3 years, but to travel through France the vacinnation needed to be less than 12 months ago. We gave Jessie a booster although she didn't need one to be on the safe side.
4. Croatia is not a part of the EU and required that we obtain an Export Health Certificate from a UK vet and a transit visa. We emailed the Croatian Vet Authorities (in Croatian) who emailed us back confirming that we would be ok to show the email at the border and it would act as a Transit visa. The important thing was the Export Health Certificate from the UK.
5. Tried to email the Bosnian authorities. Nobody seemed to know what the situation was. The most recent guidelines were issued in Dec 1996, just after the war had finished. The vet authorities passed us onto the customs people who passed us to someone else. We enlisted the help of the British Embassy who didn't get much further. Eventually it was agreed that as long as we had an Export Health Certificate and current rabies jabs that would be fine. We didn't need to have an import visa, partly because noone knew who would be the right person to issue it.
6. Apply to DEFRA in the UK to get an export health certificate. Need to visit the Vet the day before we left as the certificate is only valid for a certain number of days, most of which would be spent driving across Europe so we had to leave it as late as possible to ensure it was still valid when we arrived at the Bosnian border.
Practice:
1. British Vets were not really used to issuing Export Health Certificates. Despite several phone calls reminding them that we needed a qualified vet to sign the certificate there was noone on duty that day. Eventually we located the right person who had attended the right courses. He was very nervous about signing anything that did not totally tally with the rules, as the vets certificates can be taken away.
2. The British authorities have it in their rules and regulations that we needed a Bosnian Import Certificate before they could issue the Export Health Certificate. The Bosnians said noone needed an import certificate and they couldn't issue us with one. This left us somewhat in the middle. Eventually we persuaded them to issue it, leaving us to deal with any issues on the border.
3. The British Authorities said that we needed to transport the dog in a sealed container before issuing us with a certificate. Bear in mind the dog was going in the back of the car on a journey that would take us about 5 days. A sealed container was not a viable option and clearly aimed at animals that were flying. It took many calls to DEFRA before we found someone sensible, who said use your common sense, the reality was noone was going to check. The vet was still very nervous about issuing it and asked us to write on the certificate that we promised to abide by all the guidelines including those of containers.
4. We set off with the dog in the back of the car.
5. No one even looked at our paperwork once they had seen the EU Pet passport.
Dogs in Bosnia:
1. Vets: They are not warm and fluffy. The first time we took Jess to the vet (she had cut her paw on some glass - there is a lot of rubbish in Bosnia and this is a relatively common occurence) they stuck a muzzle on her, held her down with 4 burly men and put a lot of powder onto the wound. Jessie is a very docile dog and this was the first time she had experienced anything like this. She was not impressed.
2. The vets are rough and ready. They fix the animals but they don't worry too much about minimising scars and gentle TLC. That said, they do get the animals better.
3. Jessie is spayed, which is pretty unusual here. Most people can't believe that we have spayed her, I think they think we should be having puppies and selling them on.Very few dogs are castrated.
4. A lot of Bosnians are quite frightened of dogs. They don't really walk them freely in parks. I've had to look quite hard to find somewhere she can have really good run.
5. I checked with DEFRA - a Bosnian vet CAN administer a rabies BOOSTER and it is acceptable to the PETS scheme.
6. British Embassy has a document somewhere describing how one of its employees managed to get their cats ready for the PETS scheme and flew them out back to London via Vienna.
7. It is law (although not commonly observed) that you must have a muzzle for your dog if you are walking in a public place.
8. I keep Jessie passport with ours, but it is worth keeping as it has her microchip number on it - a number that is needed and often checked by the vets, particularly with any further innoculations.
9. Ticks are a nightmare here. Jessie gets ticks often so we are on vigilent tick check and use a lot of Frontline to protect her.
10. The Bosnians do like a good pedigree dog, particularly retrievers/labs. Those who aren't scared of her make a big fuss of her. But they still prefer that she is on the lead. They definitely don't think it is funny if she interupts their picnic lunch (she's a retriever, she's food obsessed, what can I say?)
11. Quite a few people throw food to her in our garden, including chicken bones, left over meat and bread. She put on quite a bit of weight before we realised what was happening. One woman buys her a loaf of bread every day and gives it to her, despite us asking over and over again that she not do so.
12. There are a LOT of strays here (we call them the bad boys in their leather jackets, hanging out and smoking on the street corners, as opposed to Jessie's twin set and pearls look). Jessie obviously adores them. It will break your heart though. People do leave food out for them, especially in the winter, but they can turn into a bit of a pack, with a pack mentality that is at times quite frightening.
Hope that is helpful for you. If you have any more questions then do let me know, and I'll do my best to answer them!
Emily.
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