An undated announcement has been posted to the French Ministry of Agriculture I-CAD agency website (for registering dogs in France) that puts an end to the (anecdotally widespread) practice of Brits travelling on holiday to France with their pets, applying for French pet passports. The aim was to circumvent the high charges (roughly £150 per dog per visit ) sought by UK vets for completing an obligatory Animal Health Certificate in the UK, post Brexit. Some vets here in France have been happy to issue them to Brit tourists, (provided at least a French address is forthcoming), others have refused. The Ministry of Agriculture has now clarified that French pet passports should not be issued unless the pet is registered with I-CAD (ie the pet’s owner is actually resident in France). The rule change also covers cats and ferrets, but clearly dogs are the main pets affected…
We know of several Brits who’ve done this and in fact were talking to a couple yesterday who are here now and also want to get a French Pet Passport for their 8 month old dog, clearly reading the info they won’t be able to.
From what I understood you havent been unless you already had the passport from 2021. Now its the same document by another name (stupid) just typical behaviour.
As there are only 3 posts on this thread I will not pick out bits of comments other than to say our daughter obtained an EU passport for her hound in February this year. The hounds registered address is ours here in France but both she and said hound live in the UK. To get the passport she had to wait for I-CAD registration which was granted and then the passport was issued.
I agree that a loophole has closed for tourists but it seems there is still a way to get an EU passport without the pooch living here.
The only proviso I can see is that all vaccination and boosters have to done by French vet to keep the passport valid so visits to France have to be regular.
what are the consequances of none compliance?
Searching the internet, it seems that if a non compliant pet passport is detected, eg at Eurotunnel/ferries, the pet can be denied permission to travel to France. If already in France, the pet can be placed in quarantine, and/or the owners required to regularise the paperwork before returning to the UK. You’d imagine there may also be professional/regulatory comeback for vets in France that are ‘serial offenders’ in issuing EU pet passports that were non compliant.