All good things must end. That includes a loophole in European Union (EU) pet travel regulations through which I, and many other dog owners, have enjoyed hassle-free trips to the continent for more than five years.
Since Brexit, UK-issued EU Pet Passports were discontinued and a complicated and expensive system involving single-use Animal Health Certificates (AHC) – which can sometimes cost more than £200 and take hours for vets to complete – came into force.
But those of us dedicated to travelling with our dogs found a way out: in 2023, with a book deal on the table to write a dog-friendly guide to Europe that would have cost thousands in AHCs, I travelled to Ireland with my dog to get an EU Pet Passport.
It was something of a grey area, my vet friend told me, as we sat around her kitchen table in east Ireland. She wasn’t told explicitly that she couldn’t issue an EU Pet Passport to all residents of Great Britain. A brief chat and some paperwork later, my Manchester Terrier, Arty, had a passport that gave him better travel rights in the EU than I did. It cost £80 for the passport itself and £100 for the rabies vaccination required. The passport was valid for life, so long as Arty’s vaccinations remained up to date.
Lottie’s Manchester Terrier Arty in the Dolomites, Italy (Photo: Lottie Gross)We enjoyed two full years of barrier-free entry to the EU with this passport, taking overnight ferries from Newcastle to Rotterdam and the LeShuttle train from Folkestone to Calais, so we could sniff out the best dog-friendly activities, hotels and beaches on the continent. We drove all the way to Germany and back and took the train from Oxfordshire to Venice and then into the Dolomites to visit the beautiful Alta Badia region.
I’m lucky that I was able to explore the 25 destinations that make up my guidebook, but now the money I spent on that passport – including the £430 for my ferry journey to Ireland – now feels like somewhat of a waste. The EU has ruled that anyone whose main residence is in Great Britain is no longer allowed to cross the border using the EU Pet Passports, regardless of where they were issued or when.
For many, this means shelling out more money for their summer holidays this year, and for anyone with more than one dog, it could mean several hundred pounds extra for a single trip.
Arty on the Brocken Railway in the Harz Mountains of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany (Photo: Lottie Gross)When I asked on Instagram how people were affected by this change, Julie Wood told me: “It’s so annoying that it wasn’t announced sooner. We took the time and expense of getting my second dog an EU passport last summer (my older dog already has one) as we have close family in Germany and travel there every summer for a month-long stay. Now we are back to securing two AHCs at great added cost and inconvenience.”
Liz from Bristol, who owns a Cairn Terrier called Poppy, said: “We have two holidays abroad this year booked already and will now have to find almost an extra £500 to get an AHC for the two trips.”
Several people told me they planned to travel with their EU Pet Passports in the coming months anyway and have an AHC as a back-up, as there are many outstanding questions around how the new rule will be enforced. The responsibility for checking pet paperwork has always been on the travel operator, such as the ferry companies or LeShuttle, and they’ve not yet been given guidance on what they need to do or what proof of residence may be required.
There may well be some hope, though: a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson told me that there are still plans for a new, streamlined and cheaper pet passport system for Britons travelling to Europe, and that negotiations will be wrapped up before the next UK-EU Summit. Without a date set for the Summit, though, we pet owners will be stuck shelling out for AHCs for the foreseeable future.
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