The president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance says the new rules imposed by the United States about bringing dogs across the border remain a source of confusion for members.
“We’ve surveyed our members and we estimate about 20 per cent of the cross-border trucking industry (have) dogs in their trucks,” Stephen Laskowski told Global News.
“So that represents about 28,000 trucks with dogs in them crossing the border each day.”
Laskowski said truck drivers like to have dogs in their trucks as they are companions on long drives.
“Quite frankly, I think they caught a lot of people off guard, including governments,” he said. “And that’s part of the problem.”
“The issue here is that neither Canada nor industries want to protect animals across North America. The issue is the lack of awareness of the rules, the quickness or speed of the implementation of the rules, and quite frankly, how the rules are implemented and in some cases, questions about the actual effectiveness of the rules due to revaccination requirements that appear to be inside the rules.”
Starting Aug. 1, dogs entering the U.S. must be at least six months old.
For dogs that meet that requirement, the owner must then fill out paperwork for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before their planned visit.
The papers, which will be available on the CDC website, will prove that the dog is healthy, has a valid microchip, and is vaccinated against the rabies virus.
The documents required depend upon where the dog has been vaccinated for rabies, and what countries they have been in during the six months before travelling to the United States.
“When a truck driver approaches the border, they have to clear customs or the primary, no different than a car,” Laskowski said.
“And then if there’s a problem, no different than in a vehicle, you go over to secondary. So these are CDC requirements, and U.S. customs, Border Protection. It’s not unfamiliar for them to enforce other agency’s rules.”
However, Laskowski said it’s unclear how the rules will be enforced and if a truck driver is not in compliance, will trucks be turned around?
The federal health minister said on Wednesday that he was blindsided by new rules imposed by the U.S. about bringing dogs across the border.
Health Minister Mark Holland slammed the regulations, stating they were not “thought through well.”
Canada was “surprised and blindsided” by the U.S. announcement of new regulations, Holland said while speaking to the media.
“I’m quite concerned about the regulations that are being brought in by the United States, requiring, as of Aug. 1, a number of new measures for folks bringing their dogs across the border,” Holland said.
“I think Canada should be exempt as a country that is not a source country for rabies and that we should work more closely on policy parity,” he said, adding Canada is also waiting on confirmation on a grace period for this regulation.
Barbara Barrett, the executive director of the Frontier Duty-Free Association, told Global News that border communities have already been disproportionately affected by a lengthy border closure and having more “sticky points” at the border is the last thing they need.
“It’ll affect most people coming through the border,” she said.
“So this is a tremendous issue for people coming into our stores. We’re often the last place that people see as they’re travelling into the United States and they come into our stores looking for help when they have issues crossing the border. So we help, with a unique perspective of what is happening at the border, because we’re placed right there at the crossing.”
Barrett said this is going to be a “huge issue” with people who want to travel with their dogs.
“This is just one more sticking point and one more thing that’ll make crossing the border more difficult,” she added.
“And truly, that’s the last thing that we need for our tourism industry, for our border communities, and for our border community businesses.”
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