How to Move Your Pet to and from Hawaii

May 2, 2012 2:17 pm
Operation Pacific Passage

Airmen retrieve a pet as it is belted from an aircraft carrying U.S. Air Force and Navy families from Japan during Operation Pacific Passage. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Eddie Harrison)

Getting orders to Hawaii and want to ensure a smooth pet move? The requirements might seem overwhelming, but are doable with the right amount of planning and time.

Consider setting up a separate bank account and stashing away a small amount each month. The preparation of getting a pet to Hawaii without quarantine may take several months, depending on what tests your pet currently has.

The best place to start is by reviewing the Hawaii Department of Agriculture’s checklist for the Five-Day-Or-Less Program. The four-page PDF has everything you need to ensure all requirements are met. Hawaii is a rabies-free state, so your pet must have two rabies shots 30 days apart and the last rabies must be completed more than 90 days prior to arrival. All animals must have a microchip implanted prior to the administration of the rabies blood test.

Additionally, any animal coming to Hawaii must have an OIE-Favn rabies blood test sent to Kansas State University or the Fort Sam Houston Department of Defense (DOD) lab. The DOD lab gives active-duty in a PCS status priority following the Military Working Dogs, but expect this lab test to take several weeks. To check the status of the blood test, click here. This test cannot be more than three years old, but must have been drawn at least 120 days prior to arrival in Hawaii.

A military veterinarian can save you hundreds of dollars when administering the rabies vaccinations and blood tests. When feasible, we recommend you go through them to get a good contact for a military veterinarian at your next location. You can read more about the role of The Department of Defense’s military veterinarians here. Locations throughout the world are listed.

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture has a detailed website with numerous links and forms. And most airlines have specific pet programs for flying pets, such as United’s PetSafe program. Each airline has specific guidelines regarding breeds, crate sizes and other important information.

All documents go to Hawaii’s animal quarantine station and must be original or carbon copies. Step five of the Five-Day-Or-Less checklist elaborates on what each form requires. The pet must have documentation verifying the animal is free of ticks and have an original health certificate. The health certificate must be received no less than 14 days prior to arrival and can arrive at the same time as the pet. The Dog and Cat Import form and payment must arrive to the quarantine station no less than 10 days prior to arrival.

Expect to pay $165 per pet for direct release, but if for any reason your animals have to go to quarantine, you will pay $224 the first day and $17.80 for any additional days spent in quarantine.

For overall tips of flying with your pet, please click here and read about some important factors to keep in mind regardless of your duty location.

Flying from Hawaii is not so complicated. It’s important to check the detailed requirements for the specific location, but generally you need a health certificate within 10 days verifying that the animal is safe to fly on an airplane. The health certificate may be cheaper to get on base, but recommend you set at least $50.00 aside in case there are additional tests your pet needs.

If you’re planning to move to Hawaii and don’t want the hassle of dealing with this process, we’ve got a great resource here called Island Pet Movers. Run by a Navy veteran, this company is top-notch and takes the stress off you and your family for a reasonable price. Island Pet Movers does all the paperwork, contacts your veterinarians, provides boarding if needed and even takes your furry friend to the airport. Payment plans can be arranged and we’ve heard nothing but great things about this much-needed service for our military community.

Traveling to the next duty station can be a stressful experience. But, with the right amount of preparation and slowly putting money and time aside, you’ll ensure the family pet stays within the home. And, this added time and effort may help prevent rehoming or surrendering the animal to a shelter.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=562510381 Michelle Sneller

    Great resource! Thank you!!

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  • Hergtastic

    What’s irritating is the military rarely gives you enough time to do the whole process if you want to skip the quarantine, and completing the quarantine here is ridiculously expensive. That’s probably the biggest issue, and that’s why my dog isn’t here in Hawaii. We had 3 weeks to plan our whole move which is clearly not enough time when it comes to shipping pets 5000+ miles especially when they are being shipped to somewhere with such strict regulations. I wish there was a speedier version for military families. Such as, they have their shots and are a certain age, so they only have to do the 5 day quarantine without any of the other hassles if you’re active duty on PCS orders. It would be even more helpful if the cost wasn’t so great. Leaving my dog with my parents was probably the single hardest thing I’ve ever done. Luckily I have been working on the process to get him back, and we’re almost to a close, but it’s no easy feat.
    As far as Island Pet Movers go, I agree they are a great company, but I have had a hard time communicating with them. I either wont get calls or emails back. So while it is a great resource and a great company, you need to stay on her about all details and not let her forget about you or she will.

    • Kari-Island Pet Movers – Owner

      Aloha!

      Kari here – Owner of Island Pet Movers

      The thing is for us, if you are not a contracted client you WILL fall behind in our daily communications. We have so many people who call just to ask us for advice because they can’t get through on the phone to quarantine so they call us. As you can imagine not everyone needs a pet shipper, but there are so many people with questions and when they can’t reach one office, they just start calling anyone that will answer the phone. A lot of times that is us. We often do not have their answers since we didn’t handle their pets, however they still take up valuable time on the phones and emails.

      We even have people who swear they are sending the form and please just need this one answer, and one routing question and then we never hear anything. We can’t give out free advice all day or we would never be able to stay in business. SO it got to the point where we just stop answering until we have the contact form and deposit back (not saying this is the case in Hergstatic’s situation – just saying in general)

      If we are on the phone with someone we never click over to the other line, if we did we would never get a conversation finished :-)

      I don’t think people understand that we can’t just give a quote right off of the top of our heads for areas that we seldom ship pets to, or that require home delivery or pickup on the mainland. We have to verify each routing, flight times, comfort stop requirements and aircraft sizes in relation to the crate the pet will be in. Lately the hold times for United/continental are no joke over 2 hours. I was on hold for 2 hours and 15 min yesterday before I even spoke to someone, by the time the call was done we had been on the phone for 3 hours, and I made TWO pet bookings. I normally make all pet bookings starting at 9:000 PM just so I can reach someone with less than a 30 min hold time. As you are frustrated, so are we I promise :-)

      Once someone is contracted, they are in our system, and it is so streamlined that all documents are processed on a very detailed timeline, so there is no way that things will be behind or lost. But if you are one of 10-15 people who call a day just to ask if their pets documents have been received, or what flight they should take, the priority is not at the top of the list.

      Our contact form notates at the top of the form that we must receive it back along with a deposit or you will not be considered as a client. The folks who send their stuff back take priority through the day.

      We do have many emails that tend to get buried in the bottom of our emails or do get sent to spam quite often just due to the 10-15 scam emails we get every day, no joke. These emaisl LOOK like legitimate requests for pet relocation, but after reading through them and sorting them out, they are scams. Trying to sort through what is a real quote and what is not is very time consuming and unfortunately sometimes legitimate emails are sent to spam too.

      We are a small company with three employees, I personally handle all bookings and phone calls, Tammy is a part-time admin assistant and pet handler, and Brandi is a part-time handler as well. I have chosen to keep our rates low, and help more people rather than offer significantly higher prices as many of the pet relocating companies on the mainland do. My business philosophy has been to help people keep their pets, and not put them in debt trying do so.

      Our clients who have used our services over the last 3 years know that their pets are in good hands when they sign our contract, but we really need that contract back with a deposit.

      I can assure you that problem solving is my biggest skill and challenges are what continue to drive my passion for IPM. Most days are 14+ hour days, but I love what I do, and genuinely care about our clients and their pets more than making my retirement nest egg.

      So I apologize for lack of returned email to anyone who may have been lost in the shuffle or if their emails were pushed to spam. All I can ask is that you call us back or send an email to karim@islandpetmovers.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as we pososibly can :-)

      • Kari-Island Pet Movers – Owner

        BTW – I should say three employees on Oahu, we have staff on all islands for pickup and delivery, and staff in Seattle and Southern Oregon :-)

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  • Esther

    Great source. Currently in the process of having our Siberian’s blood work (today, actually). I told the Vet to send the blood work to TX DOD. I’m quite nervous, we’re doing everything that the 5-days-or-less program requires but I would be so heart broken if we missed something small! I love my dog =) I don’t want him to be quarantined at all but our orders were definitely a late notice. We’re supposed to be in HI by Jan 2013 but we’re flying out there early December? Which won’t give us enough time… I just don’t want my dog to be quarantined at all :/ But from the time given, I think we may have to.

    • Crystal

      Yes I agree, this is a great resource for us clueless mainlanders. Hi Esther, we will be going to HI in Jan of 2013 as well and have a small dog that we cannot do without. I hope for the best for you and your family!! And I sure hope that he will not be quarantined. I will be starting the process this week! Email me if you have any advice!!

  • Amy

    Hi. Just wondering about cost for the OIE-FAVN blood test itself. We are moving back to Maui. I was quoted $300. That was only for the the draw?!? Can anyone please tell me what they paid for their pets blood draw. Also, how much for KSU’s testing services? Thanks so much. Oh, we used Kari’s services, from Island Pet Movers, to get our dog to the mainland and she’s fantastic!