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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this week pared back new stringent rules for bringing dogs into the United States that are set to go into effect on Aug. 1. Easing the new rules, especially for countries free of dog rabies like Canada, makes sense.
However, the agency has still failed to narrowly tailor rules to target countries that pose the most risk.
The forthcoming ne w federal government rules for dogs that are brought into the U.S. from other countries, which were released in May and amended this week, remain too broad and onerous. They still include new microchipping requirements, a new online form and puppies under six months old are still prohibited from crossing the U.S. border. Dogs that don’t meet these requirements will not be allowed into the U.S. and will be sent back to the country where their trip started.
After public outcry and congressional opposition, the rules were changed to eliminate the requirement that veterinarians sign a new import form. That small change was welcomed by critics of the new rule, including organizers of the annual Can-Am sled dog races. But more can be done to craft rules that are more narrowly tailored without making it more burdensome for those traveling with their pets or service animals, or those coming to the U.S. to participate in sporting events.
The rabies virus variant carried by dogs, called dog-maintained rabies virus variant, or DMRVV, was eliminated in the U.S. in 2007, according to the CDC. The agency wants to avoid a reintroduction of the disease. As a result, the CDC warns that importing dogs from countries at high risk for canine rabies could put the health of American dogs and people at risk.
The agency saw a 52 percent increase in dogs ineligible for admission to the U.S. because of falsified or fraudulent documents when compared with 2018 and 2019. As a result, the CDC suspended the importation of dogs from countries that are at high risk for rabies in July 2021. High risk countries include Brazil, Haiti and Ukraine. Canada and Mexico are not on this list.
While this increase is troubling, it represented a tiny fraction of the dogs imported from high-risk countries. The number of ineligible dogs went from 300 a year to 450 in 2020. That’s out of an estimated 32,530 foreign vaccinated dogs arriving from high-risk countries.
The CDC has said the new rules are necessary to combat a rise in fraudulent documentation and dogs housed in unsafe conditions.
Keeping dog rabies out of the U.S. is an important goal. But it is hard to see how making it harder to bring dogs across the border from Canada, which is also dog rabies free, helps reach this goal.
“While I support the CDC’s goal of preventing the spread of canine rabies, I have heard from many constituents with significant concerns about the burdensome effects of this rule, particularly for those from border communities in northern and eastern Maine,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins wrote in a letter to the CDC earlier this month seeking a delay in the rules.
Last week, Collins and a bipartisan group of 13 other senators, including Angus King, sent a letter to the CDC asking the agency to delay the rules and to make revisions. These revisions, as the senators note, should include less onerous provisions for dogs from countries that are low risk or dog rabies free, like Canada.
The senators note that the new rules could harm those who travel with service animals, truck drivers who travel with their dogs, people who cross the border for hunting and sporting events with dogs and many other activities common in border states.
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, who represents Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which has an extensive border with Canada, also sent a letter to the CDC last week asking for a delay in the rules. More recently, Golden has introduced an amendment to a federal agency funding bill that would block the CDC from implementing the new rule.
“The CDC’s new rule fails to strike a balance between safety and practicality, and it’s clear we need to force regulators back to the drawing board,” Golden said in a press release on Monday.
The new rules, even as amended, unnecessarily penalize people (and dogs) who are not the problem. The CDC should delay the rules and take the time to better tailor new restrictions to countries that actually pose a rabies risk.
