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Kurt Sansone
The catamaran docked at the Valletta sea passenger terminal at around 11.30pm and Italian couple, Giorgio and Carola set foot in Malta for the first time in what was supposed to be a one week stay with their elderly parents, who have been living here for almost 12 years.
The couple brought their pet dog, Cleo, with them – a six-year old Yorkshire terrier bitch.
Now that Malta was also part of the EU, bringing over a pet dog no longer should have poised a problem. Indeed, the dog was the only reason why Giorgio and Carola had put off coming to Malta in previous years.
The couple had all the necessary documentation as required by the EU Pet Travel Scheme, making it relatively simple for the dog to be cleared for entry into Malta once the papers were verified by a government vet.
But the much-awaited reunion with their parents was not to be. The Italian couple were stopped by a customs official, who insisted that the dog had to be taken into quarantine.
Taken aback by the official’s reaction, the couple refused to send the dog into quarantine and insisted that Cleo’s documents were all in order.
Talking to MaltaToday Giorgio and Carola’s parents expressed their disappointment at the way their children were treated. According to them when Carola insisted with the customs official that Malta was now an EU member state, the response was an uncivilised: “We did not want to join the EU.”
Eventually, at around 1.30am the Italian couple had had enough of the whole charade and were escorted back to the catamaran where they spent what was left of the night until the next scheduled voyage back to Sicily at around 5am.
Contacted by MaltaToday, Iro Galea the director of enforcement at the customs department said the Italian couple refused to have their dog taken to the quarantine section and “they decided to return on board and leave for Sicily in the morning.”
Galea categorically denied that the customs official or any of his colleagues on duty used the words “did not want to enter the EU.”
Regulations issued by the Food and Veterinary Regulation Division and seen by this newspaper stipulate that an official from the division is available for the release of pet animals entering Malta with a pet travel scheme certificate from Monday to Friday between 8am and 2pm. Any pet entering Malta not within the stipulated time and days would have to be kept in quarantine until the next working day.
Given that the Italians arrived in Malta on Friday evening, the dog had to be kept in quarantine until Monday morning.
It seems that the customs official who stopped Cleo from entering Malta was correct in his interpretation of the regulations.
Contacted again by MaltaToday the Italian couple insisted that the behaviour of the customs official was anything but civilised. “He wanted to lock the dog in quarantine for the duration of our holiday,” they said. As for the comment about joining the EU, the Italian couple stood by their version of facts.
In all this rumpus one thing is clear, easy as pet travel has become by virtue of EU membership, it is still ‘dogged’ by the odd working hours of the veterinary section.
kurt@newsworksltd.com
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