The forgotten emigrants

They are the forgotten emigrants... the family pets, and sometimes, they are left behind when their families leave South Africa. It costs a small fortune to take your pet with you, but thousands of emigrants are paying up. So much so, that some pet travel companies here have e-mail auto responders because of the volume of enquiries they receive. It can cost R40 000 to send a pet dog from South Africa to New Zealand. Then there are quarantine costs to add in some countries. In Australia, imported pets must spend seven months in quarantine, or alternatively three months in quarantine in South Africa and the other four months in Australian quarantine. For the UK, pets spend six months in quarantine. New Zealand has more complicated quarantine laws - blood tests determine whether a pet can be imported (results can take up to six months), and if they pass, there is four months of quarantine. Canada and the USA have shorter periods of quarantine.