**PLEASE NOTE-You will need to confirm your email address for your signature to count so please check your spam folder if you have not seen the email**

There is an oncoming crisis in the UK's response to Ukrainian refugees arriving in the UK relating to Ukraine being an UNLISTED country for pet entry. The UK govt issued a statement that all companion pets could come to the UK, however under current rules pets must quarantine for up to 4 months and face huge amounts of red tape and barriers.

The rest of the EU and many other countries do not face these restrictions, including RUSSIA. These are not war stricken countries and thus an emergency amendment must be made to support Ukrainian people and their pets.

We believe we must carefully find a balance between appropriate disease mitigation and humanitarian response, as other European nations have already done to protect their rabies-free status. This should entail making Ukraine a LISTED country on the UK pet entry list, meaning pets must still be microchipped, have a rabies vaccine, worming treatment and wait for 21 days post vaccine before arriving to the UK. 

Why should Ukraine be added as a LISTED country?:

1. RUSSIA is a listed country under the UK scheme, this means that pets from RUSSIA could travel to the UK under limited restrictions. This is disgraceful and Ukraine should replace Russia as a listed country on the pet entry list!
2. Ukrainian evacuees seeking temporary refuge in the UK should not be separated from their pets for an extended period of time. We should avoid causing further heartache to their owners who have left their entire lives behind in Ukraine. The last thing they want to do is need to abandon their pets or be apart for 4 months of quarantine.
3. The UK is not equipped to accommodate in quarantine the thousands of pets that they have committed to allowing as companions to their UK. There are only SIX approved quarantine facilities across England, Scotland and Wales, most of these with space for less than 20 pets. THOUSANDS of pets could be arriving to the UK in the coming weeks with no space to meet this promise of quarantine.

The government have committed to allowing entry to the UK for Ukrainians on the sponsorship scheme, many of these will have chosen the UK because of this new rule. We cannot continue to let the Ukrainian people and their pets down even further. We must push the government to put in place emergency legislation to allow Ukrainians to remain with their pets on entry to the UK, as long as they meet the entry requirements for animals.