Import help?

[ydnic]

Can anyone help me sort this out.

The past few months I have been spending some spare time on learning shipping laws and procedures.

I have a question....

I guess mainly for Saskatchewan Residents?

On the H.I.S.S. website it has some laws outlined for the keeping of reptiles within the province and importing into the province.

It states:

Before moving to Saskatchewan with your pets, you must apply for and receive, prior to arriving (2 weeks in advance to be safe) an import permit for all captive wildlife. By definition, captive wildlife includes everything besides common domestic pets (cats and dogs) and livestock.
Every reptile, is considered captive wildlife, and requires import permits.

But in some time in October while looking up these laws I found on a government website for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Animal Products & Animal Health and Production Division(not to get political or anything LOL) different information.

So I contacted a woman by the name of Christine Quinlan who is the Client Relations Officer - Import/Export, Animal Health and Production Division for Canada and she told me that to import I do not need any papers. She stated that I would only need paper work done up for turtles/tortoises, and that is internationally shipped including from the U.S..

SO I sent her another email today reaferming this situation and for the paperwork reguarding Tortoises.

What do you think?

For example Mary (sorry to bring you into this) Are you doing up paper work for your move to bring your reptiles?

Katt and Vanan - when you moved here did you do up all this paper work?

What about all the people who go to reptile shows out of province do you get paper work before you go in the event you bring something back home or do you wait until you purchae something and then do up the paper work? From what this Woman emailed me back she says there is no paperwork required - so ?

I`m just really confused now because In a past post I remember Ryan posting the fact that you can be charged 5000$ for a reptile being illegally brought into province.


anyways, any thought?

[Scales Zoo]

It is a huge pain in the ***. I know Katt and Vanan did get import permits before they moved here.

Saskatchewan and Alberta, seem to be the only Western provinces that require, or enforce the laws on import and export permits (Manitoba only requires them for native Wildlife, like hognose snakes and snapping turtles)

So, when we do a show in Alberta, we need to get export permits from Saskatchewan, and import permits from Alberta. Depending on which Alberta office we deal with, we need health certificiates for the animals. Sometimes these only need to be done within the year, but Calgary wants health certificates to be done within 30 days. So, we quit doing Calgary shows.

We have to follow all laws, because of our zoo permit. The majority of people don't get import permits, and it never causes them problems. If an officer ever asks to see your import or export permits - and you don't have them, apparently they can take your animals away, and charge you. That is why the laws are included on the HISS page, to make people aware of what is expected of them from Sask Environmtent, so they don't get into trouble.

The CFIA regs only apply to bringing animals into Canada - and they are just worried about turtles basically. On the HISS page, I have the contact info for the person you probably want to be talking too with Sask Environment.

Ryan

[ydnic]

So I should write to that Lady and get all the info from her then? Because If I didn`t have the import permits and I was picking up a package from the airpost I would be denied the animals then?

[Scales Zoo]

You can phone the Regional Sask Environment office and ask for Penny Lalonde, they will either give you her current number or forward you. My experience has been that she is very nice, easy going, and has common sense.

I've never been asked to show paperwork at any airport, and I've shipped and received well over 100 times. But to cover your butt, I'd suggest getting import permits, you never know when they (Sask environment, the Airport people don't care) will ask to see them. They are free, and they usually can have them to you in just a couple of days.

You could request import permits at your local office, they will fax Penny the request from there.

Ryan

[Katt]

Yes we have import permits for all our critters. Even after we moved we applied for import permits on snakes we knew we'd be getting. Coming next TARAS show we will be applying for our import/export permits on snakes we are buying and snakes that have sold.

Getting the permits is extremely easy, just don't be putting boids on your application was you WILL BE REFUSED.

[ydnic]

Ryan - what do you mean by my local office?

heheh - yeah Katt I know I can`t get boids - I can`t get boids... :(

Do you have to put what animals you are getting or how many you are getting - what if you don`t know ahead of time? Or is it just a general permit?

[Scales Zoo]

I meant your local Saskatchewan Environment office. Used to be SERM (Sask Env and Resource Management). It is where the conservation officers work.

There is just one permit, but on there they put how many of what kinds of snakes, (2 cornsnakes, 3 kingsnakes, etc...). They also give you a time frame to import the animals into the province.

What we have done, is put more animals on the permit than we plan to get. If we don't get the animals, they just black them off the list - showing we didn't get them. You could discuss something like this with them ahead of time.

If we ever saw anything we really needed to get, we'd buy it and keep it with friends in Alberta until we could get the import paperwork - and then bring it to Saskatchewan.

I know some people who just skip the step about actually keeping it alberta, and get import permits a week after the fact - which covers their butt in the end.

Ryan

[ydnic]

Okay - thanx a lot ryan

[Tim and Julie B]

Well, this is news to me. Is there anyone who can give me contact info to get import permits so that my butt is covered at the next alberta show? I would be downright heartbroken if someone came to a show and was asking to see permits and I couldn't give them one, thus getting my animals taken away. Also, are these permits quick to obtain, because even I couldn't tell you how many baby leos or tarantulas will hatch before a show. Plus, do you need a seperate permit for each one, or each species. And what the heck is a "health" permit? Don't tell me they want to see a vet record for the baby leos and tarantulas. I can see the vet now, "Ummm....you need to make an appointment for 200 baby leopard geckos and 200 rosy slings? Hmmm......I'll see what week I have free."LOL Any help with this would be appreciated.

Julie

[ydnic]

I can see the vet now to .. "$$$$$$$$$$$..."

[Scales Zoo]

Alberta's laws are different than Saskatchewan's.

Their permits cost $20, and 1 permit covers all your reptiles. I'm not sure if you need a permit for Tarantulas, maybe someone from TARAS can answer that.

Yes the health certificates do mean a vet checkup. It can be a letter from your vet stating that all animals were inspected and appeared to be healthy and free of disease. We have them done annually anyways - it was the "within 30 day" ones that Calgary requested that was a major pain.

I don't have a phone number handy, but in Calgary we deal with Kathy from the Fish and Wildlife branch.

I think it is safe to say that we are about the only people who get import and export permits from Alberta for shows. It is easier when we have prearanged a sale, whether we are buying or selling, so we can pay for the Alberta import or export permit a head of time - and because of this, prefer pre-arranged sales. In other cases, we'll just bring a few of each species we are wanting to sell at the shows, and leave any that don't sell with a friend, until we can get permits to bring them back to Saskatchewan. Or we sell them for really cheap at the end of the show!

As far as I know, Fish and Wildlife have never done anything at shows, but at one of the most recent shows there were some plain clothesed F and W officers attending apparently. They were probably (hopefully) just buying pets with their kids.

I think we are fooling ourselves if we don't think "they" are keeping an eye on the shows, as well as the Internet. I did receive a phonecall about hognose snakes after one show - because someone had said we had one there. Luckily, we had permits to do so legally - and we were just displaying it, it was not for sale.

Ryan

[Tim and Julie B]

Thanks Ryan, I will call F and W and ask for Kathy. I would rather be safe than sorry come show time.

Julie

[vanderkm]

Just a quick response because I was mentioned early in the thread - we have applied for and received a permit to import all our snakes into Saskatchwan. Penny is great to deal with - permit required filling in number of each species and day they would be imported along with contact information and locations to and from. No cost and took only a week or so to clear. We will be obtaining permits in the future for any an all shows that we do in other provinces.

Even though the Canadian government does not require any specific permits for import to the country, each province still has the authority over wildlife in that province and can make regulations with repect to what can be owned or imported - we prefer to abide by those rather than risk losing any from our collection.

mary v.

[nita]

I had no idea that to bring a snake from another province you needed papers!! Learn something new everyday!!

[Scales Zoo]

Nita, don't feel bad, a lot of people don't know.

But talking to a guy who recently got charged with an illegal importation charge, he may now also be charged Federally under the WAPPRIITA act because his animals were CITES listed.

They kind of sort of enforce CITES rules in Canada, and apply them to the interprovincial transport of reptiles, as well as the imporation into Canada.

To be fully legal with any CITES appendix 1 animals, the person getting the animals in their province, should apply for CITES paperwork from Environment Canada before getting the snakes, and they are supposed to come with CITES paperwork. CITES 1 always needed paperwork from the source country and destination country, but under the WAPPRIITA act - they expect you to do it between province and province as well. I've never heard a case of anyone being charged for not complying (yet)

With appendix 2 animals, all you need to do is follow the provincial import and export laws, for the provinces the snakes are moving to and from. I have also never heard of anyone who was actually charged under the WAPPRIITA act for this, but like I said, I've heard that someone may be and would imagine some people have been charged that I have not heard about.

Ryan