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A controversial decision by the US government to impose new requirements on dogs entering the US was prompted by a “drastic increase” in forged documents and fraud – including cases of people using Canada to bring dogs into the US from countries with high rabies rates.
A lengthy statement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — obtained by CBC News — sheds new light on a decision that surprised the Canadian government, Canadian veterinarians, dog owners and federal Health Minister Mark Holland in May.
The announcement also raises questions about whether Canadian authorities are doing enough to prevent dogs from entering Canada from countries where rabies is common.
According to Dr. Tim Arthur, president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, the problems the U.S. is trying to address with new regulations could also have implications for Canada.
“I think it would be very helpful if Canada would more strictly control its borders for dogs coming from countries where the rabies variant is present,” he said.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it has introduced new measures in 2022 to ban the commercial import of dogs into Canada from countries with high rabies rates. It says it “continues to explore options to further strengthen Canada’s import requirements for dogs.”
The controversy revolves around new requirements that went into effect August 1 for anyone bringing their dog into the U.S., and for Americans returning to the U.S. with their dog.
After negotiations between Canada and the U.S. and a trip from Holland to Washington, the U.S. agreed to a nine-month grace period for countries like Canada with low rabies rates. Dogs eligible for the grace period must be at least six months old, microchipped, and have spent the previous six months in a country with low rabies rates; their owners must also fill out a form. The CDC has simplified other requirements during the grace period.
New rules planned for at least a year
The notice, posted on a U.S. government website on May 13, shows the new rules have been in the works for at least a year. There was a consultation period that resulted in 2,106 comments, including one from animal rescue groups with 118,312 signatures.
In its statement, the CDC said the risk of rabies being reintroduced to the U.S. is increasing, primarily due to dogs being imported from other countries for profit and by international animal rescue organizations.
The agency also says it has seen a “drastic increase” in people forging the paperwork that came with some of the dogs.
Health Minister Mark Holland says it’s a “good idea” to make sure your dog has the right vaccinations. Holland added that “mistakes happen,” but in a short time the Canadian government worked with the U.S. government to ensure Canadians were treated fairly.
“In 2020, CDC noted a 52 percent increase in the number of dogs deemed ineligible for admission due to falsified or fraudulent documentation, compared to 2018 and 2019,” the CDC statement said.
According to the CDC, some people claim their dog is theirs when it is not.
“The CDC has documented numerous importations each year in which parents transport dogs for the purpose of resale, adoption, or transfer of ownership that do not meet CDC entry requirements,” the agency wrote.
“These flight parents often claim the dogs are their personal pets to avoid U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal Care entry requirements and potential tariffs or fees under CBP regulations. Even with good intentions, these importers endanger public health because many do not know the history of the animals they are transporting.”
The statement said that in some cases, importers have turned to Canada in their efforts to import dogs from countries with high levels of canine-maintained rabies virus variants (DMRVV) into the U.S.
“HHS/CDC has documented numerous cases of young dogs less than 6 months of age being routed from DMRVV-risk countries through DMRVV-free countries, such as Canada or Mexico, to circumvent U.S. entry requirements,” the notice said.
The report details four cases since 2015 of dogs with rabies brought to the U.S. by animal rescue groups: three from Egypt and one from Azerbaijan. An investigation found that the paperwork for the dogs imported from Egypt was falsified.
The notice states that two rabid dogs were imported from Iran into Canada in July 2021 and January 2022. This occurred at the same time that the U.S. had imposed a temporary ban on the import of dogs from countries with high rates of rabies.
The criminal dog trade
The statement also cites a Canadian study conducted between 2021 and 2022, which found that when tested, nearly half of shelter dogs with valid proof of rabies vaccination brought into Canada had no detectable rabies titer, indicating they had been vaccinated.
The statement said it is not only international animal rescue groups that are bringing dogs to the US
“There is growing evidence that criminal networks are becoming involved in the lucrative dog trade. The illegal puppy trade has also increased during the pandemic,” the CDC said.
When a dog is diagnosed with rabies, the CDC estimates it costs an average of $270,000 to test and vaccinate people exposed to the dog.
Although rabies deaths are rare in the U.S. and usually result from exposure to wild animals, the CDC estimates that 59,000 people die from rabies worldwide each year, many of them children.
The CDC admits it doesn’t know exactly how many dogs enter the U.S. from other countries, but estimates that about one million dogs enter the country each year, including 100,000 from countries with high rabies rates.
The CDC’s statement also explains some of the measures the organization has implemented, such as the requirement that dogs be microchipped.
“The CDC has documented multiple instances where importers attempted to pass off vaccinated dog records as dog vaccination records without proper veterinary documentation in an attempt to import the unvaccinated dogs into the United States undetected,” the agency said.
“Because microchips were not required for entry into the United States at the time and the dogs in question were not microchipped, the public health investigations to confirm the identities of those dogs were both labor-intensive and challenging.”
Vaccine skepticism
The statement said the new rules are also needed because of gaps in rabies vaccinations in American dogs.
“Researchers recently found that 53 percent of the U.S. population is vaccine hesitant, defined as ‘dog owner skepticism about the safety and effectiveness of routine vaccinations in their dogs,’” the report said.
Arthur said his members were surprised by the CDC’s announcement and feel like they’ve been left out. As talks between Canada and the U.S. continue, his group recommends that veterinarians from both Canada and the U.S. be at the table.
Arthur recommends that Canada tighten its own rules as well. He said that importing dogs from abroad has become very lucrative and while commercial importation of dogs is prohibited, a private individual can bring a dog from a country with high rabies levels into Canada.
And there is no limit to the number of dogs a person can bring, he stressed.
“I don’t see any hard and fast rules in CFIA about you as a private individual owning one dog, two dogs, five dogs,” Arthur said. “You just have to say, ‘They’re my dogs.’ So you can bring them to Canada and sell them the next day. Nobody would know any better.”
