Senators Push Back on New CDC Mandate for Importing Dogs

The CDC says the new rules targeting dogs will prevent the spread of rabies in the United States.

Pets are loaded for take-off in the Los Angeles-area city of Hawthorne, Calif., in this file photo. David McNew/Getty Images

A bipartisan group of senators called on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) not to go ahead with a previously announced rule that would restrict the number of dogs coming into the country that’s slated to go into effect next month.

The CDC’s new requirement on importing dogs into the United States is set to go into effect Aug. 1. The agency rules desgined to stop the spread of rabies, mandates that dog owners show documentation and meet age requirements in order to have a dog enter the country. A rule published in the Federal Register says that U.S. Customs officers will enforce the measure at border crossings.

“Preventing infected dogs from entering the United States is a public health priority,” the agency said in May in announcing the rule. “Each dog imported with rabies could infect people and other animals and could cost more than half a million dollars to contain.”

However, the mandate, according to the group of senators led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), could be particularly “onerous for dog owners, breeders, truckers, and sportsmen and women who frequently cross the U.S.-Canadian border” for a variety of reasons, including work.

While describing the rule as “overly broad,” the senators said they back the CDC’s goal to prevent the spread of rabies, which can be fatal or cause paralysis, in dogs.

“The unprecedented requirements included in the final rule, such as the six-month minimum age requirement for dogs to enter the United States and the need for a microchip before a rabies vaccination and additional documentation and certification,” they warned, “would create significant barriers to low-risk entry from Canada into the United States and have a disproportionate effect on border communities in our states.”

The letter placed emphasis on truck drivers who travel across the border with their dogs, noting that they could “face difficulties in meeting these regulations” while carrying goods into the United States.

In a report issued on its website, the CDC said that the most significant rabies threat to Americans comes from foxes, skunks, and raccoons, noting that fewer than 10 people die each year on average from the virus since the 1960s. In 2022, the agency warned of a rise in rabies linked to bats after three people, including a child, died from the virus.

What It Means

The expanded rules mandate that all dogs entering the country appear healthy when they arrive, be at least 6 months old, and have a microchip along with a CDC dog import form that has to be filled out two to 10 days before arrival in the United States. Import forms that are currently being used will expire on Aug. 31, according to the agency.

“If you don’t follow CDC’s rules, your dog won’t be allowed to enter the United States,” the agency warned on its website, updated on May 8. “If denied entry, your dog will be sent back to the last country of departure at your expense. Country of departure is where the last trip originated—not where the dog was born or where it lives.”

The latest regulations “apply to all dogs, including puppies, service animals, and dogs that left the United States and are returning,” the CDC stated, and they “also apply whether you are a U.S. citizen, legal U.S. resident, or foreign national.”

Dogs arriving from a country that the federal health agency deems a high risk for rabies or dogs who got a rabies vaccine in another country have to meet more stringent criteria, it added.

Certain dogs coming into the United States might have to get a blood test to ensure that it has immunity to the virus, pass a physical examination upon arrival, and get a vaccine inside the United States. Under some circumstances, the dog could be quarantined for 28 days, the CDC said.

Other than the senators’ letter, multiple rescue organizations such as the Humane Society warned the CDC mandate could create problems for ordinary Americans, military families, and government workers.

“The CDC’s job is to maintain public health, but these new requirements may needlessly delay Americans—including government personnel and military families—from returning to the United States with their pets, creating great anguish and breaking up families in the process,” Tracie Letterman, vice president of federal affairs at the Humane Society Legislative Fund, said in May.

The Epoch Times contacted the CDC for comment Friday.