Importation of animals.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

How do you import animals? What permits do you need? Do you goto (insert country here) and get the animals your self or do you have the natives get the for you, which you then have to buy? Has anyone here ever imported an animal (I think Jeff did).

[Fatal_S]

Where are you trying to import from?

If you want to import from wild populations consider talking to Switzer. They'll have their people search for specific reptiles if you ask and they're very good about ethical treatment of the animals. Definitely know what you're supporting and what you're getting into though.

If you're wanting to import from breeders in other countries I'm not sure how to do that. Hopefully Jeff or others will know more.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Well I wasn't going to import (maybe in like...5 yrs). I was just interested because while talking to a major importer they mentioned that they get their skinks for 35$ which sounded crazy. Then while looking in the UK forums I saw some meraukes, and the owner mentioned that they looked like the skinks looked like the Aru Island locality,(which I have never heard of). If it does end up being really cheap to import maybe I'll think about it but... I just a teen.
Thanks I'll email Switzer.
Maybe it'll give somebody else ideas?

[Bird_Brain]

The skinks may only be $35 but then you have to account for deaths, and shipping. You are going to have several hundred $ in just shipping/importing costs. To make importing cost effective, you need to import many animals, id assume several thousand $ worth of animals

[jasjmm27]

Importation is not cheap at all, can be "easy", but is very nerve racking waiting for the animals and hoping they will get to you ok...all the stops, checks, and fees you have to pay really add up and it can take a while and be very expensive...you might find a really good deal for about $300 for up to 5 animals, but I have not been able to find that deal again...it is usually about $300/animal and that is a very good deal...at that rate you don't really know when you will get the animals...probably in about a month...this is coming from somewhere not in the Americas to the US...

Most often you will need to deal directly with an importer/agency and a broker (on both sides of the shipment)...that cost goes into the hundreds, nearly $2000 for shipments from Europe/Asia.

Best bet is to try to "piggy back" on companies going to the country/show in question and see if they will bring the animals you would like back for a fee...

My experiences only...

[Ophidiophile]

I imported some rare colubrid snakes from Indonesia back in the mid-90's. It was not a good experience - actually it was pretty heartbreaking. There were a large number of DOAs and I was sent a large assortment of snakes only some of which were actually of the species I ordered. The snakes seemed quite cheap but by the time I paid documentation, health certificate and shipping charges, and factored in the DOAs, they weren't really cheap at all.
My advice is to buy your herps in your home country and leave the importation process to others. Actually, my advice is to buy CB!

[Jeff]

You don't need any special license to recieve animals from other countries, but there is a fairly involved process to do it. The more people you know internationally, the better chance you have too cut costs.

I have pretty limited experience with importing animals, but I currently have seven skinks that I purchased while they were on other continents, and had to fascilite getting them to me. Every situation has been unique for me. I have learned that the more money you are willing to spend to get the animal to you, the less commplicated the process will be for you. You really can just hire an importer to do everything for you. He will just need certain information from you, and be able to deliver the animal to your front door. The downside is that this will cost you $2000 or more on top of the cost of the animal.

The cost does not include a huge profit for the importer either. There are a lot of entities that require payment throughout the process. Most countries require a health certificate before an animal is allowed to be exported. There are also fees for the export from the country of origin and import into the U.S. Then transportation to the appropriate airport, and delivery to the airline. The freight charge is usually fairly high, then when the package arrives, it needs to be inspected by both customs and Fish and Wildlife. Someone needs to be there to get the animal through these inspections. There are only a limitted number of airports in the U.S. that have the appropriate agencies present to do these inspections. If you don't live in New York, Florida, or California, there is probably not one near you, so you need to figure in travel to the nearest certified import airport. Imported animals can ONLY be imported through these airports. There is really no way around it. I'm sure I haven't remembered everything, but the point is, it is pretty involved and expensive.

It is usually easy to get stuff OUT of most countries (obviously Australia is not included), it is getting them INTO the U.S. that is challenging, and there is always the fear that the animal will make it here but the authorities will not allow it to enter because of some technicality.

I did have one situation where the problem was getting animals OUT of the country they were in. To make a long story short, there was a period of time when all of the Chinese airlines were convinced that the U.S. had banned all animal imports from Asia. That was not true, but it was not possible to convice any of the Chinese airlines of this, so NONE of them would accept animals destined to the U.S. My only option was to have my skinks first shipped to someone I know in Europe, then shipped from Europe to an importer in Seattle, WA, then shipped to a friend in Kentucky, and finally to me. This type of situation is not really that unusual. There are almost always ridiculous hoops to jump through. Remember, this is when you are dealing with legal, captive bred animals that don''t have CITES issues! It can be even worse!

I have come to the conclusion that the best scenario for buying animals internationally is to find them in Europe. The reason for this is the Hamm Reptile Expo in Germany. This is the largest reptile in the world and it happens four times a year. It is generally pretty easy for anyone in Europe to get their animals too the expo. In turn, there are MANY American reptile dealers that atttend every Hamm expo. Many of these U.S. dealers will be bringing many animals home already. It is very easy and inexpensive for them too bring additional animals home with them. Most will still charge you a fee ($300 and up) to bring an animal home, but that is a steal in most cases. Once they have your skink in America, they can just FedEx or UPS it to you.

I HATE importing animals! It involves hours and hours of phone calls and emails. More headaches and stress than you can imagine. Unfortunately I will probably do it many more times in the future. I just wish there were other ways to get the animals that I want.

[Jeff]

I should add, I have considered becoming a licenced importer. I have no interest whatsoever in importing wild caught animals, but buying captive bred animals internationally would be much simpler if I had an import license. I would still have to travel to a "port of entry" in another state to recieve animals though, so there would not be much of a cost savings.