Families who adopted pets from international rescue missions may have inadvertently contributed to a new puppy pandemic.
As some localities have banned pet stores from selling pets, unscrupulous schemes have emerged for importing purebreds such as French bulldogs from other countries — often under the guise of legitimate rescue. About 1 million dogs are imported into the United States each year, fewer than 1% of which are regulated by the Department of Agriculture.
Dogs brought to America by international pet rescue missions are causing outbreaks of deadly pet infections in the U.S. The issue has gotten so bad that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month issued a temporary ban on dogs from high-risk countries due to rabies concerns.
Pups from more than 100 countries, including Cuba, Haiti, Thailand, and China, are only allowed to enter the U.S. through designated ports of entry after a CDC dog import permit is granted. CDC dog import permits will only be granted to pets with rabies vaccination certificates.
This action by the CDC was prompted by a shipment of dogs imported from Azerbaijan. The dogs tested positive for canine variant rabies, a disease that hasn’t been detected in the U.S. since 2007.
Luckily, these dogs were stopped before entering the country and infecting our pets. Often, customers aren’t that lucky. Outbreaks of deadly pet viruses have been popping up year after year as animal rights organizations and criminal enterprises continue the lucrative business of pet importation.
In January 2015, animal rescue groups began importing dogs from Asian dog meat farms. The press coverage (and resulting donations) saw many groups scramble to get in on the action. While that sounds like a great story, it quickly took a deadly turn.
Just weeks after the first rescue mission, the first case of canine influenza, H3N2, was spotted in Chicago. According to a report from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, the virus had been circulating throughout Korea and China since 2006, but it had never been detected in the U.S.
“[W]e certainly have situations now where animal rescue groups are rescuing dogs in China and Korea from their meat markets, and we know for a fact that some of those dogs have found their way into the Chicago area,” said Cornell’s Dr. Edward Dubovi.
The virus quickly swept throughout the U.S., infecting dogs in almost every state.
H3N2 wasn’t the only virus imported. In March 2019, a new strain of canine distemper was spotted in the U.S. Again, researchers from Cornell traced the virus to a shipment of rescue dogs from Korea. Coincidentally, Humane Society International delivered dogs to Canada in February 2019. Those dogs were then transported to Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan.
Was that flight the source? It’s hard to say because there is no effective oversight of these rescues.
Sadly, these outbreaks have become routine. A shipment of dogs arrived in September 2019 to the Washington, D.C., area, and a kennel in Virginia closed a few months later due to an uncontrollable outbreak of parvovirus. A shipment of dogs arrived in Milwaukee in December 2017, and by January, a shelter in Illinois was forced to close because of a dog flu outbreak.
We take lots of precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The same can’t be said for foreign animal rescue and the diseases we import.
Self-regulation isn’t working, especially when rescues can make millions in donations. There’s only an incentive to import more and more. And they’re not the only ones cashing in.
Foreign dog trafficking has become a profitable trend in international crime circles. “Many dogs are bred irresponsibly in large numbers in ‘puppy mills’ overseas,” says the CDC. “If the illegal puppies enter the United States, they are marketed to the public through social media such as Facebook and Twitter.” Scammers may even use phony rescue groups.
The CDC’s restriction on foreign pets from more than 100 countries is a start, but Congress must do more to regulate pet imports.
The Healthy Dog Importation Act, a bipartisan bill led by Reps. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota and Kurt Schrader of Oregon, would require that all dogs that are imported into the U.S. to get valid health certificates from a licensed, accredited veterinarian — regardless of the dog’s country of origin. Congress must pass this legislation soon. If not, we should not be surprised when the next puppy pandemic hits.
Will Coggin is the managing director of the Center for Consumer Freedom.
