We were at the French side of the tunnel yesterday at the Pet Passport check in . An English guy was refused to return to the UK with his dog because the Passport was not in order. The french lady in the Passport office was rude,dismissive and quite unsympathetic and said "rules are rules" he was the second one this week she said. The dog owner was distraught and told me that his vet in the UK had assured him that all was in order-clearly it wasn`t.
I don`t know what he would have to do-Quarantine??
I`m sure that this is not a common occurrence but I urge first time PP users to have the Passport checked.
I have heard of errors by French vets but not Vets in the UK
Post last edited on 18/07/2010 17:58:09
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The rules are quite clear and do need to be followed to the letter. The alternative is 6 months quarantine at the owners expense. Probably thousands of pounds and 6 months when the pet will be shut up and inaccessible.
As we were leaving Cherbourg last year, the pet passport people discovered that our dog's passport was out by 5 days! Our home vet had actually entered the wrong date and even though we rang our vet and let him explain his mistake to the pet passport people, they would not let us proceed (unless we would enter the dog into 6 months quaranteen on the UK side).
But the sun was shinning and we were able to get an extra week off work, the boat reagganged and booked into a nearby campsite, broke out a nice bottle of wine and stayed in France for a further 5 days. A lovely unexpected extra week of holidays, well 5 days anyway.
I would agree that the pet's passport is even more important than your own, as the poor dog can be locked up for 6 months, just because you did not check and double check the small print!
Yup, heard it all befoe (sadly). As advised, check, check and check again! There is no room for error or compromise. If in doubt, read the DEFRA web-site carefully and then check, check and check again! Always before travelling.
Adrian
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it does apear we give vets the benefit of our doubt that they can read and write . unfortunately highly educated no intellegence is the norm. some are brilliant i must add . i dont like highly educated people they think they are better than most folk. heee heee.
Could it have been that the French Vet had not stamped the passport correctly.
This was our first time taking our dog abroad . Spoke to a lovely English couple and asked what the procedure was. They told us to make sure that the passport is given 3 stamps otherwise we would be turned away, told to go to a vets nearby and have the dog checked again,(more expense).
Thanks to their advice the whole procedure was simple.
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Agreed that you must double and triple check the details on your pets paperwork but Im not sure that the French dont use mistakes to their advantage.
We brought my wifes Gordon setter back to the UK from Hungary (where we had been living) our Hungarian vet had made some error and the extremely rude french customs woman refused him entry,
After much toing and froing and literally begging on our part she referred us to a vet in Calais who could give him his worm treatment....For a price...90 euros..he literally stamped our form refused to give us a receipt and neglected to even look at our dog who remained outside in our car throughout
It was clear from the way the whole thing was conducted that this was a regular occurence.
We were so releived to get Home that of course we never questioned it or complained and I think they counted on this.
Hmmmm French veterinary practice...nice work if you can get it especially if you know someone who works at the port!
I don't think your experience is that common, autopipac - many people taking dogs report nothing but friendliness and professionalism from the vets they use - there are some reports of not even being charged for things which here in Britain would attract a big fee - and many people take their own treatments, which the vet is quite happy to use.
For anyone really worried by this post, who's taking a pet for the first time, the vet at Eperleques near the campsite Chateau du Gandspette comes highly recommended by many of the 'doggy' people we meet on site there, usually on our last night. His name is Msr. Jean Paulus, and his practice is only about 500 metres from the campsite.
We don't have a dog ourselves, any longer, but my advice to anyone who does is make absolutely sure your British documents are in order, make sure you know EXACTLY what timescales apply to what, and then use a recommended vet on the French side.
I think you had to be there to understand why I got the impression I did, It is still my opinion and the opinion of my wife that this was a regular occurence between these two individuals... Im sure there are plenty of French customs people and veterinary surgeons who have integrity but this vet clearly has none or he would have given my dog the treatment that I paid for!
I agree about using a recommended vet just not one thats recommended by anyone connected with the French ports
It was never my intention to "worry people" or put people off taking their pet abroad I just wanted to relate my own personal experience and state my opinion!
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As we were leaving Cherbourg last year, the pet passport people discovered that our dog's passport was out by 5 days! Our home vet had actually entered the wrong date and even though we rang our vet and let him explain his mistake to the pet passport people, they would not let us proceed (unless we would enter the dog into 6 months quaranteen on the UK side).
But the sun was shinning and we were able to get an extra week off work, the boat reagganged and booked into a nearby campsite, broke out a nice bottle of wine and stayed in France for a further 5 days. A lovely unexpected extra week of holidays, well 5 days anyway.
I would agree that the pet's passport is even more important than your own, as the poor dog can be locked up for 6 months, just because you did not check and double check the small print!
Sorry I just want to clarify, when you say the passport was 'out by 5 days'.
I guess you mean that you had another 5 days to go before the 6 month period was complete ?
Because if the passport ' was out ' of date, you would have to start the whole process again ! Blood test, wait 6 months etc..
We have used the Passport a few times from Spain via France to the UK & the only time we had a hiccup was when we turned up early for our ferry in Calais, we couldn't take an earlier one because we had 1/2hour to go for the 24/48 hours bit.
The time the vet put in the passport , silly, but rules is rules & we had another coffee.
Could it have been that the French Vet had not stamped the passport correctly.
This was our first time taking our dog abroad . Spoke to a lovely English couple and asked what the procedure was. They told us to make sure that the passport is given 3 stamps otherwise we would be turned away, told to go to a vets nearby and have the dog checked again,(more expense).
Thanks to their advice the whole procedure was simple.
Officially you only need 2 stamps for the 2 treatments your dog is given. The other section 'Clinical Examination' is optional, if you check there is only room for 5 stamp there, compared with room for 15 stamp in the treatment sections.
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Topic: Pet passport ist time users warning
, silly, but rules is rules & we had another coffee. 
