The Bubble: Dog Importations & the New CDC Regulations

The Bubble: Dog Importations & the New CDC Regulations

As many of you already know, there will be new regulations covering the import of dogs into the United States, effective the first of August 2024. From that date, no puppies under the age of 6 months can be imported into the US, and there will be no exceptions. CDC has the power to create new regulations to protect public health.

This has become necessary to prevent and deter the importation of dogs carrying the canine rabies virus and possibly other diseases or pathogens. Imports have already been associated with falsified rabies vaccination certificates. In 2020, records indicate a 52% increase in the number of dogs that were declined admission into the US due to fraudulent documentation. These dogs would have been returned to the airport of origin. The CDC has cited several cases of rabies-positive dogs being imported into the US by or on behalf of animal rescue groups with documents that proved to be fake.

These groups have been importing wholesale shipments of dogs and puppies into the country, breaking all existing rules such as puppies under the age of 6 months could not be imported for resale. This included private sale and shelter/rescue adoptions. Unfortunately, these groups looked for and found every loophole to avoid following the law. Importers have been importing these dogs for adoption/resale and as donation grabbers. We have seen the ads on TV and on social media pleading for donations. They use the words “meat dogs” and the general public immediately open their hearts and wallets. Many of these dogs were literally scooped up from the streets, stray dogs carrying multiple diseases, including rabies, and some were stolen.

They bypassed the age limits either by using “flight nannies” who were given free round-trips to places like China to bring back their so-called personal pets or by using forged documents indicating a different age of the dog. I read a story about the Ark, which had been created at JFK, and one of the people who worked at the airport described puppies coming in that still had their baby teeth. In another case they tried to bypass the stringent checks at JFK by flying a planeload into an airport in Canada, then having them trucked over the border into the United States. They were then dispersed through various rescue organizations and adopted out to the general public with no health checks. One of the dogs ended up biting somebody, by this time living in a private home, and was confirmed to have rabies. A number of people had to have rabies shots. It could have happened again, and so the CDC rules have become necessary. The import regulations are stringent. You can find everything on the AKC Government Relations site at: https://www.akc.org/clubs-delegates/government-relations/.

What will be the effects of this new ruling? In the short term, the most immediately affected people will be those who live along the US/Canada border. All Canadian dogs wanting to visit the United States will have to have the same import permits as dogs from other countries. It will be both time-consuming and costly for breeders to be required to do this every time they want to drive over the border to go to a dog show. Many will not enter and that will affect American dog show entries. People who want to buy puppies from breeders in Canada can no longer buy a puppy at four months; they will have to wait until it’s six months old. Breeders will not want to retain them for that long and go through the paperwork. If an American-born and vaccinated dog crosses over into Canada, they will also be affected because the documentation required for their return will also be extensive. The precise requirements and downloadable documentation will be available at the middle of July.

The people who will be affected in the long term are those who own low number and rare breeds. I have asked on social media how breeders are feeling about this. One breeder said that it will have an impact on them because they need different lines in their breed and importing is the way to do it. New lines will be imported to improve breed health and diversity. Another said that she’s very sad and worried for their limited gene pool as they do a lot of importing to add to their gene pool, and this will now limit their options. She worried that breeders in other countries are not going to want to keep their puppies until they’re six months old.

Another breeder said that even though it will still be possible to import puppies, it will have an impact on large breeds because they gain size so fast and getting the larger crates to ship them causes problems both in higher costs for shipping, money required by the breeders, and difficulty with paperwork. Another breeder predicted there would be a demand in some cases for confirmed pregnant bitches, but whether or not these will be available is a big question, and what would be the cost?

It has not affected me just yet, but it will in the future. I have not had a litter here in France but had planned on doing so at some point. Whether this will be feasible I cannot say, as I would have been sending puppies back to the US to people I know. What if I had a litter of 10 puppies and had to keep them all for six months? I don’t think so.

It’s the same with all the rules that are created because of bad actors; the good people become collateral damage. Strangely, the AR organizations are not in favor of this. I would have thought they would have been clapping their hands with glee. Oh wait, they are upset because it will have a negative impact on the ability of rescue groups to import dogs from unknown sources, including
high-risk countries.

Four dogs were imported into the US (2015-2021) which were found to be infected with rabies:

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, February 2018, stated, “…Rescue dogs are regularly imported into and through New York City for adoption and for purchase… Several rescue dogs imported from other countries into or through New York City subsequently developed severe neurologic illness and have been diagnosed with rabies or canine distemper virus (CDV) in recent years…”

A year later, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment posted, “On Feb. 25 the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) was notified of a dog in Missouri that tested positive for rabies. This dog was part of a group of 26 dogs that were imported from Egypt at the end of January 2019 by Unleashed Pet Rescue…”

One highly publicized case was that of a shipment of 33 dogs and one cat, imported by a rescue group, that arrived at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago from Azerbaijan in June 2021. The dogs were provided with what were valid health records, but a mixed breed puppy was adopted by a family in Chester County, Pennsylvania, which was taken to a vet with suspicious symptoms where it was euthanised and tested positive for rabies. Three other cases of dogs being imported and then being found to be rabid had preceded this case, which triggered the first set of restrictions in 2021.

I have not been able to validate the fourth case, but there was a lot of Internet chatter that a large group of rescue dogs had been shipped into Toronto by an international rescue and distributed to various domestic groups for adoption, including at least one in the US. This shipment was taken across the border by truck, and one of the dogs developed rabies after being adopted by a family.

In all of these cases, the number of people who were put at risk and requiring preventive treatment was high. We can all be angered and frustrated by the new restrictions, but something had to be done. The groups that used bleeding heart advertising to reach as many donors as possible were more than just enablers, turning a blind eye to falsified vaccination certificates and documents of origin. Some were active partners.