Jarrah Goes To Italy

[Wobbly]

Hey DOLers, very long time no see!

I haz been very busy & not been intarwebbing much. But I had to share our latest adventure with you, coz it's one one DOLers will understand:

So if you were moving to Europe. How would you decide which country to settle in?

The one with the most sensible dog laws of course!

Sif there'd be any other considerations. XD

Italian legislation recognises that ALL dogs can be dangerous, regardless of size or breed. It recognises that the single greatest influence on whether a dog is dangerous is the owner, and so it holds the owner entirely accountable for their dogs behaviour.

The sanest, most sensible dog law that could possibly be drafted.

YAY!!! Viva Italia! :laugh:

Once upon a time, Italy did have BSL legislation, the list of banned breeds blew out to 92 I believe, until they finally realised that banning breeds wasn't stopping people being hurt and mauled by dogs. BSL simply didn't work. A dog is just a dog, it can't understand human mores & morals, it just does what seems most appropriate to it's fuzzy little doggy brain at the time. You can't hold a dog, or its breed, responsible for breaches of human law, only the owner can be held responsible for their dog's behaviour. Italy now puts the blame where it belongs - if a dog bites it's because its owner is guilty of criminal irresponsibility.

Italian law won't discriminate against my dog because she looks like a Pit Bull, and I can't prove her parentage to be otherwise, but will instead hold me 100% responsible and legally accountable for her behaviour. As it should be.

Hopefully, just hopefully this piece of sane, sensible dog legislation will spread to other countries, including Australia. I'm not sure if there was any concerted effort by Italian dog owners to fight BSL (I imagine there was) or whether that had any influence on the repeal of BSL in Italy. I will try to find out. My Italian is still pretty woeful though, so it might take sometime to find out.

Now the problem is getting her out of Australia. The Airlines practise breed discrimination too. Since she is chipped as an AST, rather than the "unknown X-bred" she should rightfully have been chipped as, my airline options are scant. I am using a pet travel service called Jet Pets to navigate the hoops I have to jump through on this & they are great, I'm taking her to Sydney tomorrow to get Jet Pets vets to scan her & send her information to Australian Quarantine to see if they will have a problem with her breeding (or lack thereof as the case may be!). And of course to buy her an airline compliant crate so I can & start putting treats & marrow bones in it to make it the BEST place in the whole world, in order to reduce the stress of travelling as much as I possibly can.

And one last time - VIVA ITALIA!!!

Edited May 25, 2010 by Wobbly

[RottnBullies]

Oh lucky lucky you, and Jarrah off course :D

What an exciting move!!........

No doubt you will love It, I have been thinking of packing up and going back myself these last couple of weeks, seeing

as I haven't been since 96 I do miss It though. But carting 4 dogs would not come cheap unfortunately :p

What part of Italy will you be going to? Is this a permanent move?

Please keep us posted on how this all goes, and hopefully It will all go smoothly

Thank dog to countries like this who now know better than to stick to BSL bullshit laws that DO NOT WORK! and Implement a more workable and yes sane law :p :D

[APBT]

So many great APBT's in Italy aswell.

[ruthless]

Holy shit Wobbly, big changes! You'd better come and visit tomorrow if you're in my neighbourhood! :D

[Wobbly]

Hey RnB - yes its a permanent move, there's no quarantine for Italy as far as I can ascertain, as they already have rabies & Australia doesn't. But there's a quarantine for coming back into Australia and it's a long one, which I wouldn't put Jarrah through so we won't be coming back here. She's snoozing on the couch now entirely unaware that she's going to have to learn to yap in Italian. "D It is horribly expensive - the quote I got, all inclusive of every detail except customs clearance once we hit Italy is $2900. Ouchies, teardrops on the keyboard at that! But I'm not going without her, so I'll just have to eat noodles for a bit!

We'll be going to Tuscany, near the Pisa area, once I've got Jarrah's flight all sorted, next project is to get a house rental organised.

Yeah ABPT, there really is so many beautiful Pits there. And they all walk the streets, no muzzles, & they sit outside cafes with their owners drinking coffee, coz Dogs are allowed to sit with their owners in the outside parts of restaurants there I['ll take Jarrah to cafes like that for sure, but I think we'll avoid the restaurants coz I can just imagine how much the smell of Florentine steaks in restaurants will make drool. She'll start trying the triangle of temptation out on the waiters.

Yes Ruth! I'm there! Around 3pm!!

[RottnBullies]

We'll be going to Tuscany, near the Pisa area, once I've got Jarrah's flight all sorted, next project is to get a house rental organised.

Oh no, now I'm even more jealous you just about picked the best spot there! It's so very beautiful!

Photos are a must once there and settled in off course

Thanks heaps for all the Info

[tybrax]

Lucky you, l wish you all the best. tybrax

[Wobbly]

Haha RnB, it is beautiful there, so IMO you should definitely make the move!!

I will get more info tommorrow about exactly whats needed, the bureaucracy on the Australian end looks daunting, but on the Italy end relatively simple.

Thanks Tybrax & more especially thanks on the IADCRO link - Spain was where we were going to move, but the BSL law there put me off, even Amstaffs & SBTs must wear muzzles there, & so we decided on Italy instead. But with Italy repealing their BSL law & Spain & Italy being so similar in culture & language, I wonder if that might have a positive effect on Spain, especially since Spains law is so patently ridiculous - their list of banned breeds is huge, much bigger than Australia's - surely they have to see some sense or every pet dog in Spain will end up in a muzzle.

Ruth is gonna take photos of Jarrah modelling collars tomorrow - but Miss Jarrah's not looking her best atm - i just got her back from the kennel on the 19th of this month, she was there for 6 weeks while we were in Italy & Spain & the kennel didn't feed her her normal diet of chicken necks, cow hearts, marrow bones & sardines there, only Origen dry food - so her coats not as shiny as it normally is yet, and her muscle tone is not so good as it usually is either. Much like her owner - zomg the food & wine is so good in Italy - much pasta & pizza & no boring vegetables "D so thats both of us with no muscle tone atm - we are in dire need of our normal healthy diet & exercise schedule right now! Both of us are panting at the end of walks that would normally be a breeze, but we should be fit again in a few weeks. XD

[Wobbly]

OK so we went to Jet Pets today, here's the breakdown so you can join us in Tuscany RnB

Got the crate, it was $265. Its all airline approved.

Got the rabies Vacc, it was $110, it's valid for 12 months

Got a bilingual English/Italian certificate of rabies Vacc for Italian customs

The vet also scanned Jarrah - her chip information will be forwarded to AQIS & Malaysian airlines to make sure there will be no problems. Also the vet took about 5 photos of Jarrah to make up for Ruth not being able to photograph her because it was raining. Not really, the photos are for Malaysian Airlines - that is to do with her being chipped as an Amstaff, it's not normal procedure for other breeds. Veterinary check was done, that was a freebee, another will be required, and a cert will be issued for that - their vets are AQIS approved.

Still to go we have (jet pets will organise all this for me, but I'm putting it here in case you though you might do it yourself):

Flight booking

Customs Clearance

AQIS Approved Veterinary Health Check

AQIS General Health Certification

Customs & AQIS Export Permit

Basically all I have to do is bring Jarrah in for another health check (not sure how long prior to the flight, I imagine I would want to do it a few days before), and then bring her in a few hours before the flight. The crate has no wheels, so it will be forklifted on and off the plane with Jarrah inside. Jarrah will be walked onto the tarmac by Jet Pets then loaded into her crate, obviously this isn't possible or appropriate for every dog, but it's what they'll do with Jarrah since she's too big for her crate to be easily carried & she's happy to be walked by anyone who picks up her lead. As far as I know that's pretty much it, once we get to Italy there's a few fees to be paid there - a customs handling & release fee & another one - all up I believe about $300. Jet Pets doesn't organise that. I have to pay. Then customs in Italy hands me Jarrah over & we go on our way.

So it looks like there'll be no issues, it's just we are very limited in our choice of Airlines - I think basically we are restricted to Malaysian & KLM because of the Amstaff chip. If I could go back to the day I picked her up at the pound & have told the guy who did all the paperwork to chip her as "unknown cross breed" I would, it would have given me more choice in airlines & less uncertaintly with AQIS, and would have been a more accurate description too.

So no photo shoot today with Ruthless Coz the rain didn't stop. & I'd bought Jarrah's frisbee for awesome action shots & everything. But thank you for the tea & cake & soup! I forgive you for saying Jarrah's a fatty :D :D (she is too - blame the boarding kennel, I'll get her back in form for the collar modelling, shouldn't take more than a fortnight or so more of proper exercise & diet :D)

Edited May 26, 2010 by Wobbly

[GeckoTree]

Hey wobbly I have read a few stories about dogs doing the bolt when they get out of the crate at the end destination, it might be a good idea to lock jarrah in the crate on departure. See news item, http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=196342

Good luck with the move, Italy sounds fab!

[RottnBullies]

OK so we went to Jet Pets today, here's the breakdown so you can join us in Tuscany RnB

Yes fingers crossed hopefully one day

Much appreciated for the breakdown of things,

and wishing you guys all the best of luck with It all

[Zhou Xuanyao]

Hey Wobbly good to here from you again !

What a big move good for you. I hope you and Jarrah will be very happy all the best

[felix]

Well, sensible or not, in Italy your dog must never be offlead in urban areas. And you have to have a muzzle with you at all times as well.

Also, my understanding is that vets have the power to decide which dogs are potentially dangerous and these will have to be muzzled in public at all times.

Some dog sports, like schuhtzhund are now illegal in Italy as well (not sure about this, will need to check).

Good luck with the move, but the things are rarely the way they look at the first.

Edited May 28, 2010 by felix

[Tempus Fugit]

Mmm,

Maybe the list of DDs on this site is out of date: Anglo info?

[Pitchick]

Wow, such a big move. Hope all goes to plan for you guys and Jarrah.

Tuscany hey... Im so jealous.

[dianed]

Have you ever lived there before? I have and IMO its a dump of a place, to many people in one small country for my liking.That said I have many Italian/Aussie relatives and they all prefer to live here. Good luck, it will be an adventure.

[poodlefan]

The Australian Capital Territory doesn't have BSL either. It's a lot closer.