by Pythonodipsas » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:03 am
I went to the states, bought a whole lot of snakes and tried to export them. It wasn't hard, but it takes time, mine took over 2 months. You will need to speak to the local US Fish and Wildlife department for export permits. If you have any CITES species you will need permits from the local CITES authority. They will only issue CITES permits if you can prove the snakes were captive bred.
Also get the State Vet to certify the snakes are free of disease.
Then you will need to find an airline. British Airways will ship venomous but only from certain ports. You will have to find out which is nearest to where you are. You will also need to make up a shipping crate that meets IATA regulations which you will get from the airline.
On the south African side you will need the relative import permits and most importantly you will need to get state vet clearance. Make sure the state vet knows whats going on because if he is unhappy he can send the snakes back (at your expense) or euthenaze them on the spot. You will also have to allocate a registered quarantine facility to hold the snakes for 30 days.
It sounds like a lot but it can be done if you put your mind to it.
I failed because my contact in SA, who helped me through all the paperwork forgot to tell me about the state vet issue. I only discovered this when I arrived back in SA and the snakes were in washington about to be shipped 2 days later.
This state vet issue caused a delay and the chap who was keeping my snakes, was moving to a different city and couldn't keep them any longer. He passed my snakes and his snakes onto someone else he knew. This person subsequently dissapeared and stole all our stuff. I lost about over R15 000 worth of animals.
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