Animal Health Certificate / Pet Passport

We had planned our first post-Covid trips to Ireland and then continental Europe for this year. Our dog, Dotty, had had an EU UK Pet Passport pre-Brexit for several years. Post Brexit, we knew from the UK Government website that she would require an Animal Health Certificate (AHC) for each trip to continental Europe.

We researched  extensively the various government websites and motorhome magazine articles and came up with this plan of action:

1. Go through the expense of getting the Animal Health Certificate for Dotty – 2 visits to a specialist vet (not all vets are qualified to fill out these forms) at a cost of £200.

2. Visit Ireland in June as planned and source a vet to supply an Irish EU Pet passport. This was surprisingly easy - we called at a supermarket in Co. Galway and there happened to be a veterinary practice next door. While Sue was shopping, I popped into the vet and asked if we could get an EU Pet Passport there and then. Yes - no problem! We were visiting a friend of mine and I gave her address for the passport. The vet copied information from the original UK EU Pet passport and the AHC and charged us 30€. Dotty now has an Irish EU Pet Passport. 

(If we not already booked the Irish Ferry (some years ago - postponed due to Covid regs and medical issues) we would have crossed Stranraer to Larne. No AHC required and then drive into the Irish Republic.)

3. Drive to Europe in August via Eurotunnel. We presented the Irish EU Pet passport at the Pet check-in and received the helpful comment from the (French) official that the date of Dotty’s rabies vaccination was before the date the Irish vet had scanned and recorded Dotty’s microchip - not an issue for this official. We realised this might be a problem in the future as we could be asked to prove that Dotty’s microchip insertion was prior to the rabies jab. As we didn’t want to take any chances on an over-officious border guard, we found a vet in the Netherlands and Dotty had a rabies jab (she still had 2 years left on her previous one). It was recorded on her Irish EU Pet passport at a cost of 47€. With hindsight, we would have asked the Irish vet to administer the rabies jab.

4. Then, as in days of yore, 3 days before returning to the UK we found a vet in France to administer a worming tablet (which we supplied). This was recorded on Dotty’s Irish Pet passport and cost 38€.

5. We went through pet control in Calais on our return – no problems!!

So, for much less than the cost of a 1-trip AHC @ £200, Dotty now has the documentation that can be used for all Euro trips ad infinitum. We will still have to go through the worming tablet routine each time we return to the UK and keep the rabies vaccinations up-to-date - administered in an EU country as UK vets are no longer able to update EU Pet Passports.

BTW – at no point leaving or re-entering the UK to go to Ireland (Holyhead-Dublin-Holyhead) at the start of this master-plan were we asked for any pet documentation!

Sounds like a similar experience to mine when I got a French Pet passport for my dog. But the vet picked up that he would need a new rabies jab and this would need to appear to be his first ever rabies jab. Just got the rabies booster done on my recent visit to France.  On this occasion, the vet asked if lm my ‘French address’ was a fixed address (as opposed to being a campsite).  It’s the house of a friend so the answer was yes.  

Talking to other UK dog owners when I was in Europe, there seemed to be a 50/50 split between those who’d got European Pet Passports, and those who were using AHCs. Of the Pet Passport group, the feeling seemed to be ‘why wouldn’t you’.