Customs photo

Photo by Charles Csavossy

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer tends to the U.S.-Canada border at the Port of Detroit, Michigan.

Canada has secured a partial relaxation from the United States of a controversial new dog-importation rule that many veterinarians fear could leave hordes of pets stranded at the border.

Still, the Canadian government is concerned the now-softened rule, due to come into effect Aug. 1, remains too strict and is pushing for a full exemption for Canadian dogs.

Designed to prevent the spread of rabies, the rule from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention applies to all dogs coming to the U.S. from any other country, whether they're owned by foreigners or Americans returning home.

The rule is complicated but essentially forces pet owners to produce paperwork that proves, with various caveats, that dogs are vaccinated against rabies and microchipped.

For dogs vaccinated in the U.S., for instance, their rabies shot must have been given by a veterinarian accredited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or a doctor in the same practice as an accredited veterinarian. The rabies certificate must be separately endorsed by the USDA.

For dogs vaccinated outside the U.S., their paperwork must be endorsed by an "official veterinarian" in their home country; in Canada's case, by a veterinarian licensed there.

However, in a relaxation, a requirement for the Canadian paperwork to be validated by a veterinarian specifically from the Canada Food Inspection Agency has now been dropped by the CDC, according to the Canadian government. "That was going to be a massive problem for us administratively," Canada's health minster, Mark Holland, told a press conference this morning.

Moreover, Holland said the CDC would no longer require Canadian dogs to be implanted with a microchip compliant with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Now, any type of universally readable microchip will be accepted.

The concessions were agreed upon, Holland said, after he traveled last week to Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. health secretary Xavier Becerra and other American officials.

Holland said the CDC also may introduce a cooling-off period to give pet owners time to adjust to the new rule. "We've gotten very positive indications — we're waiting on confirmation — that there's going to be a grace period where folks are given a warning at the border for the first couple of months so they don't just have this policy jumped on them."

Even with those concessions, though, Holland is hopeful that "logic will prevail," and a full exemption from the rule will be granted for Canadian dogs, in part, he said, because Canada "is not a source country for rabies."

The relaxation already agreed upon applies to dogs vaccinated in Canada only. More generally, Holland slammed the rule as a "very poorly thought-out bit of business," and maintained it "will have a huge impact for Americans" returning from abroad.

"Look, we've got a ton of Americans up here right now during the summer," he said, adding many had dogs and are unaware of the rule. "And they're gonna be looking to come home with their dog, and what are they gonna do? Right? They're going to be stuck. They're not going to be able to go home."

For its part, the CDC wouldn't comment on specific concessions and requests. "CDC is aware of concerns associated with the recently published updates to the dog importation rule," it told the VIN News Service by email. "We value the feedback received from various countries, industry partners, and the public, and are actively working with federal and international partners to discuss the feedback received."

Dr. Scott Weese, an infectious disease veterinarian at the University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College, welcomed the rule relaxation. "It's not perfect but it's a big improvement," he wrote in his Worms & Germs Blog.

In an interview, however, he said he doubts the CDC will offer the full exemption sought by Canadian lawmakers.

"The big thing they're worried about, which is a reasonable concern, is people laundering dogs," he said. "So they come in from China to Ontario, for example, and then they just hop in the car the next day, and they're in the U.S. They've been in a high-risk country three days ago. That's why I'd be surprised if they removed things completely."