Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether people are able to adopt and bring to the UK abandoned animals from the Ukraine.

The Government has already put in place new emergency support for those fleeing Ukraine with their pets. Using an emergency licence, people fleeing Ukraine can bring their pets to the UK with any quarantine costs met by the Government.

We understand, that as a nation of animal lovers, UK citizens may want to help offer a safe and permanent home to rescue animals that are in Ukraine.

However, Ukraine is an unlisted country due to the confirmed presence of rabies and rabies is likewise present in Romania, Poland and Belarus. We are concerned about risks to human and animal health in light of the rabies risk posed by commercial and rescue movements from Ukraine, which come through particular third countries (Belarus, Poland or Romania), given the animals are often of unknown background and disease status, unlike family pets.

We are aware of non-compliant commercial movements from these countries which has been exacerbated by the crisis in Ukraine. We have assessed the disease risk posed to human and animals from commercial dogs, cats and ferrets who are non-complaint. We have concluded, given the already high-risk of rabies from these countries, and the additional risk of serious non-complaint commercial movements, we have taken the difficult decision to temporarily suspend commercial movements of dogs, cats and ferrets, including rescue animals, from these countries.

This temporary safeguarding measure, ending on 14 May, will keep the public and peoples pets safe. Stopping these non-complaint commercial movements form entering the UK will also prevent vital quarantine spaces having to be reallocated from pets belonging to those fleeing Ukraine.