Dog to Bahamas, Cuba, Cayman, Belize??

[magnusmurphy]

Can anyone tell me what the customs/immigrations requirements are to cruise with a small dog to these countries?

Is it even practical or possible?
My family wants to take our little lapdog on our cruise. She's used to boating and has been all the way to Alaska from Vancouver and back. There however we only crossed one border - the US and it was no big deal. What about these however? I can't seem to find good information and what there is is about permanently importing pets.

Help - I'm outvoted!

Magnus

[bottleinamessage]

We took our dog to the Bahamas last year and will again this year. Pretty straight forward process. We had paid the $15. permit fee in advance (via mail) and recieved the permit. We carried her shot records with us from the vet and had the required "final checkup" by a local vet shortly before departing Key West. Cleared in at Cat Key without any problems. During the 3 1/2 month visit, we were never questioned about her permit status.

[ebs001]

The best thing to do is contact the embassy of each of the countries you wish to visit. Alternatively you can visit websites for each country and get information there.

[sevseasail]

Hi magnusmurphy..

I was in cuba about 12 year ago. I happen to be in a merchant ship at the time where we had a dog (her name was "negra")..... however; back then the dog was not allowed to go ashore under no circumstances and if that happend we will face pretty steep fines.

We ended up staying about 25 days and the dog did not go ashore.
Negra had all her documents and that was the only country where we had problems.

I don't know how things are today but I don't expect it to be very different.

Good luck!

[speciald]

My experience is that as long as the dog stays on the boat, no problem. Some islands require a rabies titer ( not record of shots) as they have no rabies on many islands and want to keep it that way. Any vet can send the blood to a lab for the test but it akes time as there are limited labs do the test.

[sailingdog]

noonsite.com might have some information regarding pets and their requirements.

[phiggins]

I was in Cuba 2 years ago at Marina Hemingway and there was an American boat (they had special license to bring in medical supplies) and they had a dog a Jack Russel and about a dozen birds.

The dog was free to wonder all over the marina by itself and nobody complained. In fact the dog had some kind of operation there to remove some internal growth.

One of the birds was a huge parrot that sat on his owner's shoulder while he bicycled all over Havana. Quite a site for the locals.

I think all you need is the dog's rabies certificate.

Paul