On May 8, 2024 the Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced an update to its dog importation regulation that would go into effect on August 1, 2024.
Starting on August 1, 2024, all dogs entering the United States must:
- Appear healthy upon arrival;
- Be at least six months of age;
- Be microchipped; and
- Be accompanied by a CDC Dog Import Form online submission receipt.
Additional requirements are based on where the dog has been in the last six months and whether or not the dog was vaccinated in the United States. For dogs arriving from countries with a high risk of dog rabies, they must be protected against rabies.
According to the CDC’s website: “The rabies virus variant carried by dogs (dog rabies) was eliminated in the United States in 2007 and CDC wants to prevent the re-introduction of dog rabies into the United States. This regulation builds on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic when a temporary suspension was enacted for the importation of dogs from countries with a high risk of rabies. This suspension will expire when the updated regulation goes into effect on August 1, 2024. The regulation also more closely aligns with the World Organization for Animal Health’s standards for the international movement of dogs from countries with a high risk of dog rabies. Furthermore, it addresses recent challenges seen with international dog importations, such as fraudulent documentation and dogs housed in unsafe conditions if they didn’t meet requirements for entry to the United States.”
Senators, Travelers, Truckers, Medical Tourists Push Back
On July 19. 2024, a bipartisan group of Senators asked that the CDC pause or extend the deadline for the mandate on the grounds that it is overly broad and unnecessarily restrictive, and it would adversely impact thousands of current dog owners who routinely cross the U.S.-Canadian border. More alarmingly, the mandate could potentially separate healthy dogs and service animals from their owners during routine travel or medical excursions.
According to the CDC’s website, there are fewer than 10 human deaths related to rabies in the U.S. each year, and the rabies threat to Americans comes from foxes, skunks, bats, and raccoons, not domesticated animals.
As senators Susan Collins and Andy Klobuchar note in a letter, the CDC’s new mandate unnecessarily focuses restrictions on low-risk areas:
“While we support the CDC’s stated goal of preventing the spread of canine rabies, the rule is overly broad and would be onerous for dog owners, breeders, truckers, and sportsmen and women who frequently cross the U.S.-Canadian border for work, veterinary care, canine events, breeder collaborations, or simply to visit friends and family. The unprecedented requirements included in the final rule, such as the six-month minimum age requirement for dogs to enter the United States and the need for a microchip before a rabies vaccination and additional documentation and certification, would create significant barriers to low-risk entry from Canada into the United States and have a disproportionate effect on border communities in our states.”
According to the new mandate, dogs denied entry will be sent back to the last country of departure at the owner’s expense. Country of departure is where the last trip originated—not where the dog was born or where it lives.
The latest regulations “apply to all dogs, including puppies, service animals, and dogs that left the United States and are returning,” the CDC states, and they “also apply whether you are a U.S. citizen, legal U.S. resident, or foreign national.”
This means that dogs arriving from a country that the federal health agency deems a high risk for rabies or dogs who got a rabies vaccine in another country have to meet more stringent criteria. Currently the CDC does not supply the list of high-risk countries on their website, further confusing the issue.
Further, the senators’ letter raises more concerns, noting the new mandate “will significantly affect airline passengers who travel with service animals, particularly those who live in and are traveling directly from no-risk countries like Canada. Under the final rule, a passenger seeking to travel to the United States on short notice, such as to obtain medical care, without the requisite sequencing of microchip and then rabies vaccination or certified forms would not be permitted to travel with their service animal despite posing little to no risk of importing a dog-maintained rabies virus variant. The Canadian Truck Association also formally expressed concerns about potential impacts on truck drivers who travel with their dogs while carrying goods into the U.S.”