Are you considering taking a continental holiday with a pet in tow? Peter Moore looks at some of the advantages of getting a pet passport

At the height of their celebrity during the 1980s, The Monster Raving Looney Party decided to advocate the breeding of fish in a ‘European wine lake’ so that they could be caught ready-pickled. They also argued for the extension of the Channel Tunnel to Switzerland, so that Britain could be listed as a tax-haven. And as a third spur to their manifesto, they decided to lobby for the issuing of passports for pets.

Whilst the wine lake failed to materialise and the Channel Tunnel remains rooted close to the outskirts of Boulogne, oddly the government decided to adopt the policy for pets’ passports. When, in 2001, the scheme swung into action with the establishment of the PETS (Pet Travel Scheme) and the Monster Raving Loonies could relax, smug in the knowledge that they had unwittingly changed the course of British politics. It was one of those very occasional moments when democracy seemed to work wonderfully.

Brits have long been preoccupied with their pets. Holed up on this leaf, damp island, according to a survey taken in 2001 we have managed to breed around 7.5 million cats, 6.1 million dogs, 1.1 million rabbits and something like 900,000 hamsters. That’s enough to fill the cities of London, Birmingham and Manchester. Now, we’re free to ship them about on holiday with us.

As long as your cat or dog is vaccinated against rabies at least 6 months before you travel, they are micro-chipped and you adhere to the rules of the country that you are visiting – then there is little to stop you paying P&O a cursory £15 and carting them off for a bit of culture too.

This is all good news for us Brits. Having been bought up with the Beatrix Potter stories of Peter Rabbit and Pigling Bland, which were quickly followed up with the tales of Fantastic Mr Fox and Toad of Toad Hall, it sometimes seems that the prospect of leaching us from our pets is enough to stop us holidaying altogether.

As a quick aside, it is interesting to note how we treat our animals for a moment. They have their own royal society (the RSPCA), their vets are trained more intensively than our doctors are and if you look at the retirement age of a sniffer dog, which is set at ten years of age, the enjoy proportionally a much longer retirement than the average human being (10 dogs years equates to 56 human years). Now that they can travel across Europe, a pet even has the opportunity to absorb a touch of the joie de vivre of the Continent.

It is well worth trying to picture the scene for a moment: strolling down the Champs Elysees with your golden retriever jumping at the neatly dressed Parisians, or allowing your springer spaniel to dash into the sea on the Spanish coast amongst the surfers and the scorched beauties.

The departure lounge at Dover is not just exclusively for dogs. Cats and ferrets can both also travel for £15, and new EU legislation now allows rabbits and rodents such as guinea pigs and mice to make the trip too. Odd as it may seem, a P&O ferry could pretty much resemble the Hogwarts Express, with all manner of animals being transported along with the animals.

Organising a pet passport is a perfect way of avoiding the fascist bills of the cattery or the kennels and exposing your pet to a bit of continental swagger along the way. All you’ve got to do is say thanks to Screaming Lord Such for making life a little more sensible.

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