Barnaby's Law
Barnaby's Law was a call to the government to enact new legislation with regards to commercial dog imports. We originally wanted dogs to be titered for rabies immunity however, we have since discovered that these can be manipulated and the only way to guarantee dogs entering are disease free is to test dogs from at risk or non compliant (with current regulations) countries, on entry during a quarantine period.
Previous request:
Barnaby's Law is named after our rescue dog who was brought to the UK on falsified Romanian documents and failed a rabies titer test, he is now in quarantine. Dogs can be brought in legally, we want to stop those cutting corners and bringing them in illegally so they make more money.
Currently, an estimated 30,000-40,000 rescue dogs from the EU enter the UK each year as commercial imports. This has increased drastically since 2013 when the number was 1,869.
The majority of these dogs are "rescue dogs" and come from the Balkan countries of Romania, Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria (some dogs are also coming in from the Ukraine).
Many of the dogs are illegal, entering the UK with falsified passports and have not been vaccinated against rabies nor wormed. This claim is substantiated by evidence we have obtained and the 2012 report "Cross-border transport of rescue dogs may spread rabies in Europe" published in the veterinary record.
Many of these dogs have lived in the wild, been in council shelters and have a far higher risk of bringing diseases into the UK.
TRACES: the TRACES system is supposed to provide a means of tracing a dog from origin to destination but it is open to exploitation and is being abused by many for financial gain. Dogs from each of the countries above are being given Romanian passports and put on Romanian traces meaning, their trace-ability only starts from the day they are put on the transport van. Some of these dogs have been smuggled out of Serbia, others from Bosnia or Bulgaria, they do not have the correct documentation to leave their country of origin, many have never been vaccinated or wormed. Pre 2018 the dogs would meet transporters in Hungary, be given a Romanian passports and there after be classed as a Romanian dog. Due to many errors in passports, dogs having 2 chips, dogs dying of distemper and parvo virus, control was tightened at the Romanian border points and it was more difficult for vans with traces for 30 dogs but only 15 on board to cross. Now, all dogs must travel to Romania either to be picked up at a petrol station or at the TRACES unit. One TRACES unit is demanding that the dogs must have no microchip in them, they will provide the microchip and write the passport on arrival so as to minimise mistakes and risk.
THE PROBLEM: Once the dogs are in Romania, have a Romanian chip and are put on Romanian TRACES, even the most dedicated and skilled border agent could not tell that the dog is not from Romania. Nobody can tell whether the dogs have been vaccinated or wormed regardless of which country they come from and as many Romanian dogs are being sent without rabies vaccinations, this is a huge problem and it's only a matter of time before we pass the point of no return. Already we are seeing an increase in diseases that have either been eradicated in the UK or have never existed.
THE SOLUTION: Currently, the only solution is apparently for APHA to speak with their Romanian counterparts and have them re-educate those involved, in some cases hopefully take action against those involved, reiterate the importance of enforcing the current regulations and trust this will be done. However, even if you remove the corrupt vets, Traces units and officials, that simply provides a gap which will be quickly filled. This is a highly profitable business for all involved and my belief is that we can no longer rely on other countries to resolve this problem. Norway discovered this in 2012 and prohibited the import of "rescue dogs" from Romania. That option is not available to the UK, even post Brexit, though there are other solutions and we propose two for consideration by DEFRA and APHA.
BARNABY'S LAW
Previous request:
Barnaby's Law is named after our rescue dog who was brought to the UK on falsified Romanian documents and failed a rabies titer test, he is now in quarantine. Dogs can be brought in legally, we want to stop those cutting corners and bringing them in illegally so they make more money.
Currently, an estimated 30,000-40,000 rescue dogs from the EU enter the UK each year as commercial imports. This has increased drastically since 2013 when the number was 1,869.
The majority of these dogs are "rescue dogs" and come from the Balkan countries of Romania, Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria (some dogs are also coming in from the Ukraine).
Many of the dogs are illegal, entering the UK with falsified passports and have not been vaccinated against rabies nor wormed. This claim is substantiated by evidence we have obtained and the 2012 report "Cross-border transport of rescue dogs may spread rabies in Europe" published in the veterinary record.
Many of these dogs have lived in the wild, been in council shelters and have a far higher risk of bringing diseases into the UK.
TRACES: the TRACES system is supposed to provide a means of tracing a dog from origin to destination but it is open to exploitation and is being abused by many for financial gain. Dogs from each of the countries above are being given Romanian passports and put on Romanian traces meaning, their trace-ability only starts from the day they are put on the transport van. Some of these dogs have been smuggled out of Serbia, others from Bosnia or Bulgaria, they do not have the correct documentation to leave their country of origin, many have never been vaccinated or wormed. Pre 2018 the dogs would meet transporters in Hungary, be given a Romanian passports and there after be classed as a Romanian dog. Due to many errors in passports, dogs having 2 chips, dogs dying of distemper and parvo virus, control was tightened at the Romanian border points and it was more difficult for vans with traces for 30 dogs but only 15 on board to cross. Now, all dogs must travel to Romania either to be picked up at a petrol station or at the TRACES unit. One TRACES unit is demanding that the dogs must have no microchip in them, they will provide the microchip and write the passport on arrival so as to minimise mistakes and risk.
THE PROBLEM: Once the dogs are in Romania, have a Romanian chip and are put on Romanian TRACES, even the most dedicated and skilled border agent could not tell that the dog is not from Romania. Nobody can tell whether the dogs have been vaccinated or wormed regardless of which country they come from and as many Romanian dogs are being sent without rabies vaccinations, this is a huge problem and it's only a matter of time before we pass the point of no return. Already we are seeing an increase in diseases that have either been eradicated in the UK or have never existed.
THE SOLUTION: Currently, the only solution is apparently for APHA to speak with their Romanian counterparts and have them re-educate those involved, in some cases hopefully take action against those involved, reiterate the importance of enforcing the current regulations and trust this will be done. However, even if you remove the corrupt vets, Traces units and officials, that simply provides a gap which will be quickly filled. This is a highly profitable business for all involved and my belief is that we can no longer rely on other countries to resolve this problem. Norway discovered this in 2012 and prohibited the import of "rescue dogs" from Romania. That option is not available to the UK, even post Brexit, though there are other solutions and we propose two for consideration by DEFRA and APHA.
BARNABY'S LAW
To ensure rescue and other dogs for resale or homing, coming into the UK do not pose health risks such as rabies and echinococcus, we propose the following:
- rabies titer test result required for all dogs not travelling on the pet passport scheme and within 5 days of their owner. The test must be conducted and results received before travel from the country of origin. To prevent the possibility of fake titer results, chip readers should be available for use at UK BIP's and the chip number checked against the FAVN database.
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