Shipping Dog to Guatemala! any clues????

Dogs in CA and Latin America are NOT a respected or revered animal as a pet, so wild dogs wander, and will you will encounter street dogs too, very territorial, and this is not the place to BYO Dog-Good Luck...

IMHO- If you cant vacation without your dog, its a sad statement, I guess the same applies for your cell phone....I leave that turned off...

hey the locals in Korea, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philipinnes may have a use for your pooch

yum yum!

I "imported" my dog to Guat and would never do it again. It is expensive and a real pain. I have lived in CA for 20 years so I have an idea as to how things get done and it still was not easy.

Hi Sol 17

I just completed this process to bring my cat into Guatemala so can tell you how to do it. Within 30 days of your departure you have to take your dog to your vet and have him do an exam, update his vaccines and then fill out a couple forms. Then those forms have to go the the Veterinary Services branch of the USDA. In California that is in Sacramento, the capital. They then sign it and return it to you. You then send it on to the nearest Guatemalan Consulate for their stamp which they then return to you. I did this all by FedEx with return and it went very smoothly. There is a website from which you can download the correct forms. I have it at home (I'm at work) but if you PM me I will give you the url. Also PM me if you have questions about the process.
Zoe

There are a couple of people who were once regulars on here who went to all the trouble to bring their dogs with them when they moved down here. They jumped through all of the hoops that were required to bring a dog into Guatemala, but when they got to the border in their vehicle, the authorities didn't even ask them for papers, just let them through.

The catch is their own vehicle. If you are flying into Guatemala you are going to have to do everything by the book.

Have you ever been to Mexico or Central America and seen how dogs are treated here? They are not the spoiled children one sees in the U.S. or Europe. Most of them live in the streets and run in packs, until they become road pizza. The lucky ones live on their owner's roof and bark when anything or anyone gets within 20 ft. of the house; for this service the owner sometimes feeds it. This is a country where 40-50% of the people cannot afford to feed their children, let alone a dog.

Also, those packs of dogs I mentioned: about every 6 months, when the dogs have a horrible case of mange and their ribs are showing, the communities put out poison to wipe out the population. This is actually humane, as there is almost no food in the garbage bags and dumps these dogs try to live on.

If you are foolish enough to bring you dog, don't let it out of your sight for a second. It won't last an hour on its own. These are mean streets for a dog.

Is this practice of poisoning common throughout the country?

I heard them talking about the poisoning when I was in San Pedro on Atitlan also, joan. There were some people there that were trying to discourage the practice in the community as it had killed some people's pets in addition to the starving wild dogs.

Juan, us pet owners are not always rational beings, who would sooner leave our mothers behind than our precious fluffys and bowzers!
Zoe

Interesting. We saw dogs in the most awful state in Monterrico and hungry dogs in Pana. Didn't see many dogs in Antigua, so figured either most were owned and kept off the streets or there was some sort of control method in play. I understand that in a country where people have trouble feeding their children that animals aren't going to be a priority, but still it is sad to see animals suffering.
Joan
(viewing the world through the eyes of a well-fed and spoiled citizen of the US)

zoelula...just so i understand. you flew to Guatemala with your cat and then flew home again? or am i missing something here?