A Clarification on Import Regulations

A short while ago, there was a rush of excitement in the rescue world when someone noticed this statement come across the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS), an electronic system for distributing information as quickly as possible regarding importing to and exporting from Canada. 

"Please note that the importation of rescued dogs will 
no longer be permitted after November 1, 2013."

As I indicated in the post below, this information was false.  

Today I was contacted by another person from rescue and asked if I would clarify this point as some key rescuers in Canada are apparently still under the impression the borders are about to be closed. I intended to clarify the regulations in the final post on the importation series, but personal  matters have kept me from completing that series just yet, so in the interest of debunking the myth that the borders are to close, I'll quickly sum the importation regulations and changes here.   

Further inquiry, including information from  CFIA (the branch of government responsible of import and export of animals) and updates on both AIRS and CFIA sites,  reveal the following points:

1.  The term 'rescued dogs' as used in the existing (pre Nov 1, 2013) importation regulations is VERY SPECIFIC and refers ONLY to stray dogs picked up in the aftermath of a natural disaster and being transported to animal welfare organizations.  It has NEVER referred to dogs being brought to Canada after a life as a stray on the streets of Thailand, or as an owner surrender in a high kill facility in California, or found on the beaches of Mexico, or any other variation of dogs that those of us working with rescues and shelters in Canada might otherwise consider 'rescued dogs'.  

2.  All other dogs coming to Canadian shelters or rescues in the past, at present, and post Nov 1, 2013, are/were supposed to be governed by the regulations for "Commercial - for resale" dogs.    The term 'resale' specifically includes those for adoption.   

3.  As of November 1, 2013, the ONLY change is that 'rescued dogs under the age of 8 months' (that is, puppies found in the aftermath of natural disasters) will no longer be allowed into Canada.  Puppies from other sources, as well as dogs over the age of 8 months from both natural disasters and from other sources, will still be allowed into Canada under the Commercial- for resale category.  The 'end use' of 'rescued dogs [as defined by CFIA - those from natural disaster areas] destined for animal welfare organizations' will cease to exist. 

It appears that the reason for this change may be due to the confusion the term 'rescued dogs' caused among importers, exporters and border security personnel.  

So, what are the implications of this?  

In the past and until Nov 1, 2013, stray dogs under 8 months coming from a natural disaster area and headed for an animal welfare organization required an import permit and a veterinary certificate of health, including a rabies certificate for dogs over three months of age (unless coming from an area recognized as rabies-free).  Dogs over the age of 8 months coming from a natural disaster area required only a rabies certificate (unless coming from an area recognized as rabies free, in which case nothing was required).  No permits, no health check.

After November 1st:

Dogs under 8 months of age coming to rescues and shelters in Canada will come in under the Commercial - for resale category and will require:

• an import permit, 
• a health certificate, 
• a microchip, 
• a rabies certificate (unless from a rabies free country or under three months), 

AND

• must be vaccinated for distemper, hepatitis, parvo virus, and para-influenza
• be at least 8 weeks of age
• must have been born in a licensed kennel   

More importantly:

These dogs, AND ALL THOSE IN THE KENNELS FROM WHICH THEY ARE BEING IMPORTED, must be "certified as healthy and free of all clinical evidence of contagious or infectious disease and, as far as can be determined, exposure thereto."  There can have been no cases of distemper, hepatitis, parvo, or parainfluence in the kennel of origin for 90 days preceding shipment.  

Puppies picked up as strays in the aftermath of a natural disaster will no longer be permitted, nor will puppies in shelters who were not born in a licensed kennel.  There are some other criteria, but these are the main ones.   

Dogs over 8 months of age:

After November 1st, all dogs over 8 months of age coming to rescues and shelters in Canada, including those picked up as strays in the aftermath of natural disasters,  will come in under Commercial - for resale category and will require only a rabies certificate.  There is NO import permit, NO health certificate, NO 'clean kennel' requirements, NO requirements for other vaccinations.  That means there is no change for these dogs.  

And there is not, and never has been, a quarantine period. 

There are other rules for domestic dogs and puppies not bound for resale/adoption, such as a single dog/puppy being shipped by a breeder in another country to a buyer in Canada who has already paid the breeder and will be keeping the dog as a domestic pet, or those purchased in the other country and being brought back by their new owner for their own home. 

It behooves anyone importing dogs of any age, from any source, for any reason, to read ALL the categories and criteria regardless of what the shelter or the individual shipping the dogs to you may say.  You are the one held accountable at the border.  

Better yet, don't import at all.  

Note:  The writer of this blog takes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of this information. There is a combined total of 37 pages of regulations on the importation of dogs when one accesses the AIRS and CFIA sites, and the regulations can change at any time. The above is my synopsis of the key points relevant to rescue organizations at the time of writing.  It is up to any person or organization planning to import dogs to Canada to do their own homework and read all the regulations found on this site:  http://inspection.gc.ca/animals/terrestrial-animals/imports/policies/live-animals/pets/eng/1326600389775/1326600500578

There will be one more post on the importation of dogs,  addressing the health concerns being raised by veterinarians in Canada, and the ethics of rescue.  Due to personal matters here, I am not sure when that post will be ready.  

Edited to add:  I am turning off 'comments' for this post as already I'm getting backlash for posting this clarification.   A reader in Maple Ridge/Mission area (IP 50.98.29.43) rudely objected because of the caveat that I am not responsible for the accuracy of the information.   WTF?  That's pretty standard practice when providing an interpretation of regulations!   Good Grief!  And yes, I DO know who you are!

Possible Breaking News - UPDATE!

UPDATE:
As far as we can determine, the information below is NOT correct.  One importer spent hours on the phone, being passed from government agency to government agency, and was finally told by the vet responsible for some aspect of the import regulations that the statement ONLY applies to pups under the age of 8 months, and they have only ever been allowed to be imported to rescues from disaster areas.  Apparently the border crossing security people were ignoring this clause, as were importing rescues, so the statement was meant to reinforce it.  Again, the vet stressed it ONLY applies to pups under the age of 8 months.

HOWEVER,  that said, today at 11:00 AM I accessed the AIRS sytem, searched using "dogs over 8 months" being imported from California to Canada, and the statement below is at the top of the page on regulations.  

My best guess is that someone with some inside connection to a registered importer or government employee with rights to post on AIRS has put this up as a hoax.

I am still awaiting confirmation from CFIA, and won't post the third and last of the importing series until that is received.  

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Original post:


The following statement has come through the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS), an electronic system for distributing information as quickly as possible to various Canadian government agencies and interested parties:  

"Please note that the importation of rescued dogs will 

no longer be permitted after November 1, 2013."

(Source: http://airs-sari.inspection.gc.ca/airs_external/english/decisions-eng.aspx )

This is in recommended directive to the Canadian Border Agency.  We will confirm it with CFIA (Canadian Federal Inspection Agency, the branch of government responsible for the regulations on importation of dogs) when their offices open tomorrow. 

Part Two: The Scope of the Problem

"A puppy awaits adoption"
(c) Jean Ballard 2009

Note:  This is the second of a series of think-pieces on the importation of dogs to Canada, and its effect on the lives of dogs already in our local shelters and rescues. Part One, "We Canadians Kill Dogs", generated far more interest than I ever anticipated - with the blog receiving more than ten times its usual number of visits per day as well as dozens of comments, many of which I declined to publish due to the offensive language and disrespectful tone.  In addition, the post has been shared on countless facebook pages and on four online newspapers that I know of. 

Before continuing this series,  I wish to point out that my purpose in writing the series was not to engage in debate with a bunch of people I don't know - who could, for all I know, be brokers importing dogs for profit - but to throw some ideas and information out there in the hopes that at least some people considering adopting a dog or bringing dogs here from other countries may think carefully about their choices. 

Part Two:  The Scope of the Problem

In Part One, "We Canadians Kill Dogs", I introduced the reader to the fact that while thousands of dogs are being imported to Canada in the name of 'rescue',  we already have dogs in Canada languishing in shelters month after month, shot in annual culls across the northern provinces and territories, or euthanized by the very organizations and facilities charged with their care and protection.    

But how widespread is this problem? 

According to the BC SPCA, approximately 9% of just under 10,000 dogs in British Columbia's SPCA shelters were euthanized last year (Bob Busch, BC SPCA, cited in The Province , July 2013)).  This is well below the national average of 31%, and those figures only include SPCA shelters, not other municipal or private 'pounds' about which I'll comment shortly.  

In a semi-annual survey by the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS), which again was limited only to SPCAs and Humane Society shelters (of which only 60% responded to the survey), about 14% of dogs in the shelters were euthanized in 2010 - almost 6300 dogs.  Their surveys do show a drop in the number of euthanasias from 2004, reflecting, I suspect, public pressure to warehouse dogs longer and/or to release them to local rescue groups.  

But more importantly, the figures quoted above mask the true scope of  euthanasia in our country's shelters.  As the CFHS notes, their survey

...did not include municipally-run animal shelters (or "pounds"), which collectively take in at least as many stray animals in Canada as do the humane society and SPCA shelters....Therefore, the number of abandoned, abused, and stray pets entering animal shelters is much higher than what is shown in our survey results. 

In BC, for example, the majority of  contracts for animal control are held not by the SPCA but by private for-profit companies, and anecdotal evidence suggests their rates of euthanasia are much, much higher than those run by not-for-profit organizations like the SPCA.  

Many of these for-profit organizations have other pet-related businesses such as boarding kennels which not only allow them to underbid the SPCA for animal control contracts, but also may take priority over keeping certain impounded dogs alive.  When one is trying to make a profit from impounding animals,  those that are deemed "unadoptable" for reasons of health, behaviour, or old age are cheaper to euthanize than to provide costly care for.  

The same reasons for euthanization  - health, behaviour, and old age - occur in the SPCA.  It is not a "no kill" organization, and in some provinces cannot even be said to be "low-kill".  Approximately  3% of euthanized dogs in the CFHS 2010 survey were physically and behaviourally healthy, while 80% were classified physically or behaviourally unhealthy.  With the right medical care or the right training many, perhaps most, of those 'unhealthy' dogs could have an excellent quality of life.  However,  the costs involved in getting the dog to that point may be considered too great, especially when 'the hounds are at the door' - be it more dogs needing in, or vets and suppliers waiting to be paid.  And when conditions get crowded and transfer to another facility is not feasible, the least adoptable is the first to get the needle. 

As the website for the Ontario SPCA states: 

Sadly, in some cases animals may be euthanized due to shelter overcrowding.  Overcrowding threatens the lives of all animals in our care due to stress, weakened immune systems, and increased risk of disease transmission. 

Similarly, while the  BC SPCA states it is "committed to achieving zero euthanasia of adoptable animals", this by no means claims to be no kill, and the defnition of 'adoptable' is left vague.  The BC SPCA notes that current challenges within BC include insufficient homes for the proper care of all animals born in British Columbia and consequent overcrowding in animal shelters.

Meanwhile,  more and more animals are being brought into Canada from shelters and rescues in other countries.  The vast majority of the facebook messages and media hype surrounding foreign dogs in need of help begin with sensational statements like “This dog will die tomorrow!”  And someone, for whatever altruistic or egoistic reason, will rush in to help.  

Statistics on importing are hard to come by - there are very few regulations for bringing dogs into this country, and no federal or provincial agency keeps track of how many have entered.  As a recent article in Macleans magazine so eloquently put it: 

Somehow, without notice, Canada has become a refuge to the huddled masses of the canine world, as thousands - perhaps tens of thousands - flood into the country each year.  It's a Wild West sphere, with no one tracking the numbers of rescuees entering the country,  nor their countries of origin.  

One Vancouver Island rescuer recently did a quick search of  rescues listed on Petfinder.com, the most comprehensive search tool for people looking to adopt a dog in Canada or the US,  and by checking websites and facebook pages compiled a list, in just a couple of hours,  of over  forty British Columbian organizations importing dogs to this province - twelve just on Vancouver Island. And that doesn't include people importing dogs under the rubric of 'rescue', who flip them in parking lots and on free online classifieds without ever joining the larger rescue venues. 

Strangely, Bob Busch of the BC SPCA was recently quoted as saying he didn't think the numbers of imported dogs were enough to effect our shelters.  I would argue that he is out of touch with the non-SPCA world of rescue. 

A count of the 'Happy Tails' on the pages of one Vancouver Island import rescue I checked shows they imported over 100 dogs  to the island in the last year alone.  Unconfirmed reports name another BC individual who has personally imported over 900 rescue dogs.  And on the same day that considerable media coverage was given to "dozens of surviving Whistler sled dogs still waiting for homes",  one Vancouver Island rescue in conjunction with a local pet store was celebrating the importation of a husky from an American shelter.  This week another Vancouver Island rescue reportedly imported eight more pitbulls from the States.  Like we didn't already have enough huskies and pitbulls in BC's shelter and rescue system?

And that's just in BC.  Judging by media reports, many more import to Ontario - even though it has one of the highest euthanasia rates and is located next to the province with the worst record for puppy mills and one of the worst for animal welfare in Canada.  After my first post in this series, I received a comment from an Ontario reader who said 

I think a lot of rescues look locally for dogs in need first.  But if there are open foster homes and not enough dogs locally to fill them, why not import the dogs, save some lives -- even if they are American?

I have no idea what utopian community she lives in, or what absolutely amazing rescues she is affiliated with, but every single ethical rescue I am familiar with finds no shortage of local dogs to fill their far-too-few foster homes and I know the situation is even more dire in Ontario. And we're not just talking about large dogs - the rescues in both BC and Ontario have many local small dogs available as more and more unscrupulous back yard breeders and puppy mills grind out small little dogs, sell them to the first person with cash, who then dumps them when the dog becomes an inconvenience.  The shih tzus and yorkies and smorkies and malti-poos and daschunds and puggles and jack russels are taking over the kennels and foster homes. 

Are the dogs coming in from other countries directly responsible for the deaths and excessively long shelter stays of dogs already here?  No, of course not.  But the importers may well need to bear some of the responsibility.  If they were as quick to help dogs here as to garner publicity from their so-called compassion for animals in the streets of Sarajevo or Mexico or California, perhaps dogs here would not be euthanized at the rate they are or spend months, even years, in shelters here. 

But still, one can argue, a dog’s life was saved. If not one from Canada, one from elsewhere. It made a difference to that one dog. 

And that may be a valid argument.  Until you look at the bigger picture – the problems that occur when dogs are brought in en masse, or without places to go, or without medical or behavioural assessment, or by inexperienced rescuers, or from culturally and environmentally very different regions.  And those are some of the problems I’ll address in the remaining posts in this series.  

While every attempt has been made to ensure that my information is accurate and that my opinions are based on valid perspectives (I am a retired social scientist whose whole career centred on teaching and evaluating research and reports), the material presented here is by no means comprehensive.  One could spend twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, researching and writing about the importation of dogs.  I think my dogs would object. 

We Canadians Kill Dogs

I have been struggling to write this post for over a week now.  I have considered all kinds of approaches - from the mundane to the sensational, from the appealing to the appalling.  And then, last night, this poster appeared on facebook, courtesy of a shelter in Saskatchewan:

Yes.  We Canadians kill dogs.

And we need to advertise it more.  More loudly.  More sensationally.  More appallingly.

Because it seems that an awful lot of good-hearted, dog-loving people involved in animal 'rescue' don't get it. Instead, they import dogs to Canada from Taiwan, from India, from Mexico, from Greece, from China, from every friggin' country out there.  They even import, by the hundreds, dogs from the United States -- one of the wealthiest, most educated, and most powerful nations in the world!

They do it with sensational media headlines, television cameras running, frantic pleas sent out via facebook for money, for fosters, for adopters. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Canadian dogs languish in shelters month after month, or are shot in annual culls across northern Canada, or are euthanized by the animal control facilities charged with their care and protection.  And no one seems to give a damn.  Certainly not the importers bringing truckloads of needy dogs into the country.

"Compassion knows no borders" they parrot.  That was the response I received from the Puerto Vallerta SPCA when I asked, on their facebook page, whether their practice of exporting dogs to rescues in Alberta was supported and condoned by the Alberta SPCA.  That was the response I received when I talked to a person involved in importing dogs from Thailand to my area, when I pointed out how long some dogs have been sitting in our shelters.  That was the response I see parrotted everywhere that anyone dares to question why dogs of every shape and size, every breed and age, are being imported to Canada.  "Compassion knows no borders".

Don't get me wrong:  global compassion is a good thing.  But organizations and individuals wanting to help address the horrific conditions some animals face in other nations need to take a page from organizations like Save the Children or World Vision, organizations which help address the horrific conditions some children face in other nations.  They do it by assisting the children, families, and communities to become self-sustaining.  They don’t bring plane loads of malnourished, ill, homeless and dying children to Canada;  they work within those cultures to help develop systems that work.  Sometimes working with just one child at a time, sometimes with one family at a time, sometimes with one community at a time, they slowly but noticeably make a difference.

Helping those in need within their own cultures provides a real solution, not merely a finger in the dike.  “Give a [community] a fish, and you feed it for a day;  teach a [community] to fish, and you feed it for a lifetime.” And that is true whether the community is human or canine.

Over the next few days, interspersed with some of my regular posts of my dogs, hikes and photos, I will elaborate on this topic with some anecdotes, stats and problems that I hope will provide food for thought if you are considering adopting an imported dog or supporting a 'rescue' that does so. The posts can easily be shared via facebook- there is now a gadget to the right of my blog by which you can post it on your page, and I will also post the blog on  my page.

Right now, Sadie B (a locally adopted dog who is staying with me this weekend), says it's time to play ball.