All - we are here now and IT WAS A COMPLETE NIGHTMARE. This was our experience:
As you know, the UK has strict timelines and requirements for animal imports, so we hired Air Animal to handle logistics & paperwork and Northern Liberties Vet in Philadelphia for the exam & treatment required. I should have known that something would go wrong when each time we visited the vet, she would make comments about how she didn't understand why we were using Air Animal, and that she could do it all herself. My response was always that it gave us extra peace of mind, took care of things like cargo bookings and came highly recommended by my colleagues that had used them before.
The day before travel we took Murphy into the vet for his 2nd visit where he was supposed to get the internal parasite treatment completed. We had already paid upfront for the Droncit pills when we had our first visit, so my husband waited in the reception room while the vet took Murphy into a back room. Air Animal arranged for the paperwork to be coordinated between the vet, the USDA, and finally to me. Before the flight I was given three colored envelopes - one with the original signed documents for travel, one for the origin station copy (PHL), and one for myself. We made multiple copies.
On the day of travel, we arrived at the British Airways Cargo center at PHL, and handed over the originals and the origin station copies to the cargo attendant. She ran through the checklist with us, signed off, and we handed over Murphy. I was on the same flight, and she kindly confirmed via text when he was loaded into the same plane.
Upon arrival at LHR, Murphy was transported to the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre (HARC). Around mid-day while I was waiting to hear news of his release, Air Animal called me to inform me that Murphy did not arrive with the original paperwork - only the copies. I checked back with the cargo attendant and she claimed that he flew over with both envelopes. So, somewhere along the journey from PHL to LHR, British Airways lost Murphy's original paperwork. This was unfortunate but the folks at HARC were understanding. The major problem though was that the date listed for his internal parasite treatment was not only incorrect but out of date. HARC requested that the only thing we needed for Murphy to be released was a letter of confirmation from the vet stating that he was treated for tapeworm the day before the flight (the 10th). I signed a disclosure that allowed HARC to contact the vet directly, which they did right away.
We waited for hours and hours with no word from the vet. Both my husband and I contacted the vet multiple times and were just met with excuses that she was either too busy or on her lunch break. Finally, the vet sent something over but it was too late. Instead of sending the confirmation of date/time treatment (the 10th) she sent the invoice for when the services were paid for (the 3rd). Because she claimed the 3rd, this meant that the treatment was severely out of date. We tried calling but it was nearing the end of the workday in Philadelphia, and the vet was not available. The receptionist said she would call my husband on his cell phone. She never called.
Because of this, he failed his inspection into LHR. By now it was 11pm in London, so the UK vet had to come the following morning to re-treat him with Droncit and then he had to be monitored for an additional 24 hours, in total 48 hours. I was charged $260 by HARC for the treatment and boarding which should have been covered by the $600+ that was paid to the vet for the same treatment. I was distraught. All he needed was a simple letter from the vet stating that he was treated the day before the flight but she failed to provide that. A lot of things went wrong during the course of travel, but the vet had the opportunity to fix it, and didn't.
My husband was still at home and livid at the situation. The vet refused to take his calls, so he went directly to her office. At first she refused to even see him. Finally when he did she was not apologetic in the least. She blamed everyone else, not taking accountability for writing the wrong date on the form, not documenting the date/time she administered the treatment, or not caring enough to send over correct date which was holding up Murphy at customs. She failed us.
BA failed to transport Murphy and all his paper work.
Air Animal failed to coordinate effectively.
I guess the moral of this story is - TRUST NO ONE. EVERYONE IS INCOMPETENT. There is no such thing as peace of mind. If you want it done right just do it yourself.
