Companion animals are kept and protected by humans for their accompaniment and living under their care, without risk to their lives and the community.
Dogs and cats are pets that we can consider conventional. However, some wildlife animals, such as reptiles, amphibians, birds, and small mammals like rabbits, invertebrates and fish, among others can also be considered pets.
A pet is an important member of the family, and when you decide to move from home, city or country, you have to consider taking the pet(s) with you. Consider this as animal welfare (defined by the International Organization for Animal Health (OIE) as a physical and mental state of an animal concerning the conditions in which it lives and dies.) An animal experiences physical and mental well-being if it is healthy, comfortable, well-fed, safe, without pain, fear or anxiety, and can express its natural behaviour. And of course, it will go wherever you go.
In Sweden, they have strict rules you must follow to import an animal like a dog, cat or ferret into the country to prevent the expansion of diseases like rabies because this kind of disease is not found in Sweden, but it is found in many countries outside Europe and also in a few countries in Europe.
The information varies according to the country of origin of the animal and is divided into three groups:
The countries of the European Union like Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Germany, and Austria, among others countries.
The countries that do not belong to the European Union whose rabies situation is documented and monitored like Argentina, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Fiji, French Polynesia, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Japan, Canada, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, USA (including Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and US Virgin Islands), among other countries.
The countries outside the European Union whose rabies disease situation is not under control like Brazil, Egypt, Georgia, Iran, Peru, Kenya, China, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.
In the general rules section to import a dog, cat or ferret to Sweden, there is a warning box statement: the responsibility to accomplish the import rules is of the animal owners. If documents are missing or the information is wrong, the animal may be denied entry into the country or placed in quarantine with the expenses covered by the owner; in a very extreme case, the animal may be euthanized immediately.
The general rules for the three types of group countries are:
The animal must be ID-marked with an ISO microchip after the rabies vaccination by a veterinary and place the implantation date in the certificate. When arriving in Sweden, the chip has to be read, but if it doesn´t work, the animal could be sent back to the origin country, put on quarantined with the expenses paid by the owner or could be euthanized.
The animal must have a veterinary certificate CANIS-FELIS-FERRETS made by an official veterinarian who will attach the animal documents like ID marking, certification of rabies vaccination and a pet owner vaccination and stamp the certificate.
Once the certificate, is fulfilled, you have ten days to enter the country with the animal through an Entry Point (designated places of entry where pets can be examined) in Arlanda Stockholm and Landvetter Gothenburg airports.
There are some other statements when your pet enters the country five days before or after the owner, which in that case, the owner has to sign a document specifying that the animal is your property and it will be with you or, in some cases, someone else in the new country is going to adopt it.
If the animal is going to arrive by air, you have to ask the airline directly about their own rules for carrying a living animal on the plane. You can visit the IATA Live Animals Regulations (worldwide standard for transporting live animals by commercial airlines) if you want to know more about it, whose main objective is to ensure that the animals are transported safely and humanely by air. For example, they have specific container measurements for the animal's safety and free movement so the animal can stand up and move around in case it needs it. In the rules, they said that small dogs or cats could travel within the aeroplane cabin, but there have been some cases where big dogs travel inside the cabin with their owner.
Once the dog (when importing a dog into Sweden) has passed the examination in an Entry Port and stamped the date of arrival in the certificate, you have four weeks to register the dog in the Swedish dog register (E-service: The Swedish dog register). This registry collects the personal information of the owner and dog's data such as breed, date of birth, and name.
And after all the documents and travel, the animal is safe with you in your new home to
continue the journey of life together.
Some interesting facts about dogs in Sweden according to the Canine registry statistics as of 12-31-2021 of The Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket):
Registered dogs: 1.083.000
On October 2002 there were 5,714 new dog registrations.
The Labrador Retriever is the most famous breed, with 35876 copies.
The least number of dogs belong to the following breeds with 1 specimen for each: American Eskimo Dog, Braque Du Bourbonnais, Braque Du Bourbonnais, Briquet Griffon Vendeen, Cavachon, Cimarrón Uruguayo, Épagneul Picard, Grand Bleu de Gascogne, Kritikos Ichnialits, Perro Majorero, Taigan and Taiwan dog.
The most famous name dog is Molly, with 8667 copies.
If one of your concerns when migrating to Sweden was to take your pet with you, it will no longer be so, as long as you meet all the requirements that the country asks for. This way you can have your pet as a companion while you develop and contribute new ideas to the technological and innovation area as an expert engineer. Apply now with Iknal Semikan.