How we select our puppies
We will use the example of puppies here below for ease of writing, however, the process of importing kittens is exactly the same.
In the past years we used to involve some highly reliable and ethical people to work with us in EU. Those were vets, biology field professors and passionate breeders, for whom rearing and exporting puppies was as much a joy, a hobby as a viable extra income.
However, we have decided to take the matters into our own hands from the very beginning to the very end to eliminate any margin for error that may be caused by involvement of another person. It is a full time, often round-the-clock work to contact, shortlist and communicate with various breeders, to identify genuine ethical breeder vs commercial trader, then to meet, see and examine the puppies (even while within EU, we often must drive for 8-12 hours in a stretch only for a hope of a good quality litter), explain all the details of export process to the breeder and to reserve selected puppies if chosen by us. It also often happens that the drive and effort made, our time and expenses are wasted only for us to recognise commercial breeding setup of someone we felt could have been potentially a good breeder. There have been situations when facing the “breeder”, we realise the person’s lack of passion, ethics and concern towards animals’ health and well-being. In such cases we must just walk away and accept our time/money loss. We also hear “no” from legitimate breeders too, as not everyone wants their puppies to leave EU.
Whenever possible, we prefer to reserve more than one puppy from any litter. Firstly, because flying solo causes too much anxiety for one lonely puppy to go through all the stresses of airport procedures, then facing the fear of taking off and landing alone. During such times puppies need the warmth and comfort zone of their siblings, flying alone or flying with his canine family makes a huge difference to the puppy’s emotional and physical health! Secondly, flying more than one puppy is usually more economical, especially with Emirates airline that frequently imposes minimum weight of 150kg rate.
We will summaries the process into critical points below in an attempt to shorten your reading time. Please note, however, that I can write pages on the actual process, why it is never simple and easy and how it becomes so expensive. If you ever decide to import a puppy or a kitten to UAE entirely yourself, you will understand exactly what we mean by “pages to write about”.
- Once we are lucky to find, select and convince the right breeder to work with us, we then handpick the puppies destined to travel to Dubai. The puppies must continue to stay with their mom at the breeder’s home to reach the minimum allowed age for import into UAE (from Italy it is 15 weeks as per current rules and regulations of MOCCAE).
- The breeder and we must complete all the required documentation for the export and for the import processes. The vet in EU checks the puppies in the meantime to rule out any health issue left unnoticed. If any concern is observed, the puppy will be returned to the breeder for treatment and will not be exported to us. This is also the time when any required vaccinations are done and/or repeated, including mandatory Rabies vaccine, internal and external anti-parasite treatment is administered precautionary as per UAE MOCCAE regulations.
- We prefer to transport our puppies to Dubai with shortest direct flights whenever possible (despite their high costs!). As per EU regulations, we require involvement of EU agent to reserve suitable flight and complete the booking confirmation (even while we prepare all the documents and arrangements ourselves).
- On the day of puppies’ flight, the breeder will bring the puppies to the airport several hours in advance to finish required paperwork and mandatory airport procedures to ready puppies for their journey to Dubai.
- Our puppies always travel in large size, newly purchased crates, strictly following IATA regulations. The animals are meticulously cared for at airport holding areas in EU.
- Upon arrival to Dubai, our puppies go through mandatory live animal import procedures, including veterinary inspection at Sky Cargo / Quarantine Section of Dubai airport. Once completed and the vet inspector grants us permission to proceed, our puppies are collected immediately, regardless if the flight arrives at night or during the day. Our puppies are never left unattended, waiting to be picked up. Our responsible staff are always at the airport ahead of time for the comfort and safety of our animals.
All above listed points have on-going costs involved: starting from the phone bills generated while speaking to the multitude of people to identify true genuine breeders, to the fuel charges to meet the breeders, from breeders’ high prices for their litters (no reputable breeder within western/central EU will ever sell their much loved and prized puppies below Euro 1500-2000 each, please be realistic!), to puppies additional boarding costs while waiting to reach minimum permitted to travel age at breeders’ homes, then the vet bills, export documentation costs, IATA crates and agent fees, further ground transport and air transport costs, UAE import duty, import permits and release license at Dubai Airport for every arriving animal.
