🇬🇧 How to travel to Canada with your cat

If Australia is annoying to accept cats from many countries, Canada is pretty friendly.

Domestic cats arriving in Canada do not need to be quarantined nor need a health certificate or import permit, but they do need a rabies vaccination certificate if the animal is more than 3 months old and comes from a country that is not recognized as free from rabies. The certificate must be in English or French, be issued and signed by a certified veterinarian, inform that the animal was vaccinated against rabies and when it was vaccinated, indicate the name and number of the licensed vaccine and specify the duration of immunity (without this  last information will be considered one year from the last vaccination).

A charge of $30 + taxes is charged for the first animal and $5 plus taxes for the rest to have their documentation inspected by the CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) upon arrival in the country.  If the animal does not meet the vaccination rules, the owner will be required to vaccinate it within two weeks of arrival, for which $55 plus taxes for vaccinating the first animal and $30 plus taxes for  the others. These fees must all be paid at the time of inspection.

The country does not require time between the date of vaccination and the date the animal arrives in the country, nor does it require the animal to have a microchip.

Cats under the age of 3 months are exempt from the import criteria.

Importation of food for “personal” use (of your cat, as opposed to commercial use, which is for sale) is prohibited. That is, when you go there, you should research where there is a pet store nearby and, ideally, where it sells the food your cat is used to.

For dogs the country have some extra rules, so I'll talk about them in another post.

I suggest you to include Canada in your itinerary post-quarantine. And I would love more countries as cat friendly as Canada because any wise person knows nowadays cats and dogs are family members. It’s not fair to get a job abroad and be delayed for months because our cats and dogs must provide lots of exams. If we have the commitment to keep them healthy I see no reason for bureaucracy. What do you think about this?

Nycka, the nomad