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For people leaving New Caledonia, traveling with your dog or cat by air has become a real headache. In addition to the high shipping costs, waiting times have also become very long. This has left some pet owners in a dilemma.
Aurore, a beautician, has had little work since the riots. Her planned trip to France to get married in August will therefore become a one-way ticket. The problem: His two dogs won’t have a place in the hold until November.
The cost of transporting them seems very high.”They have to stay in boarding school until they leave Caledonia. Each dog costs about 2,000 francs a day. Add to that the flights, the vaccines, the cages… the figure is closer to 800,000 to 900,000 francs.” Like other pet owners, Aurore started an online fundraiser to help cover the unexpected costs.It didn’t really work, which I can understand because we’re in that situation a lot.”
Cargo Air Services, which specializes in air transport of animals, confirmed that wait times have increased significantly in recent months.”If you start now, you should plan to leave in mid-November or even late November.said its manager David Mennesson. We received ten times more requests than usual during this period, which corresponds to the departure period at the beginning of the academic year in mainland France, when students leave school. This was obviously caused by people leaving the area after the riots. ”
The company, based in Noumea near Normandy, processes more than 200 emails a day, including requests for information, quotes and document creation. But freight forwarders still have limited wiggle room. Animals are allowed on just one flight a week.We manage to send about thirty per weekprecise David Mennesson. Our available cargo space and flight frequencies are limited.”
The transport takes place in a pressurized cargo hold, temperature-controlled, with a ventilation system suitable for transporting animals. Getting an animal to travel is also more technical than it seems. It requires a number of intermediaries and administrative formalities.
However, since the announcement of the suspension of the Noumea-Tokyo line, these procedures have become a little more complicated. To travel to France, passengers and animals will now be forced to pass through Singapore, which is more expensive and more complicated to administer.”We had to obtain a transit permit from the Singapore Veterinary Authority, which required us to go through a field agent.”, explains the Cargo Air Services Manager. Each document will cost an additional 20,000 francs.” Unlike Japan, Singapore is also stricter about the animals it allows across the border.
Small progress in sight: eight flights”With greater capacity Fortunately, cargo air services can negotiate with airlines in August. But cages are becoming increasingly rare, and the standards for cages have recently changed.”I’m out of stock at the moment. But I think if I had about fifty available they’d sell out instantly, said Sasha Watrin, manager of a pet store in Normandy. The models we receive in the future will meet the new standard. We don’t have pricing yet, but we know our prices will be slightly higher than what we are currently selling for.”
Cage, ticket, certificate Dawar – Department of Veterinary, Food and Rural Affairs – Don’t forget microchips and rabies vaccines… For some unemployed dog or cat owners, the bills are already becoming impossible to pay.”We anticipate a wave of animal abandonment. Sometimes owners will try to put them back. We also receive requests for euthanasia. And there are veterinarians who accept “”, lamented veterinarian Eric Leconte.
Animal rights groups have contacted government departments responsible for transport and animal welfare to demand that more flights be opened to animals, warning of a possible surge in the number of abandoned cats and dogs.Some have already made it clear they will leave without their animals. So yes, there have been some dropouts,” Virginie Sala, president of the New Caledonian Animal Protection Association (Apanc), expressed regret. At present, the group has not responded.
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