Exporting pets

Just wanted to give everybody a quick heads-up that Singapore's Veterinary Authority website's information is incorrect (as of 2009.10.08) on the requirement for cats and dogs coming from Malaysia to have a blood test for Nipah antibodies. I called the AVA to ask about the procedure for bringing animals in by road, and they told me that the Nipah serology requirement was waived a couple months ago. Thank God for some common sense at last =P

My mum has suggested that I write about my experience bringing Lina from the USA to Malaysia as a reference for other people since the process of travelling internationally with pets can be complicated and nerve-wracking (at least it was for me). I'll try to do that soon and include some helpful graphs of the various time-frames that you have to do things in. You DO NOT have to pay an agent or a shipping service boatloads of money, just be willing to do some paper- and leg-work and keep all your pet's documentation organized. I got a quote from a US pet shipping agency and they told me about $1500 - only $500 of which was for the actual shipping - which I thought was ludicrous.

Just a quick tip for now, my experience with Korean Air was great and based on the amount of information on shipping animals on the Korean Air Cargo site, they seem quite pet-friendly. The agents I spoke to on the phone and at the Chicago depot near O'Hare were very nice people and gave great service. It may not sound pleasant to be on a different flight from your precious Fluffy but it can be about as much or possibly cheaper than paying the fee for bringing your animal as extra baggage (many airlines no longer allow animals in the cabin). In my case the latter wasn't even possible because the Taipei-Penang leg was on a craft insufficiently large to keep an animal alive in the cargo hold for 5 hours.