Pet food from canada - Montana Owners Club

Nesta · 09-17-2005, 02:26 AM

After looking at the USA customs page, I am curious as to what I can take through customs for our dog. She eats Beneful and some tin meat. I do understand that we can't take the meat. But it is not clear if we can take the dry food. I have tried searching on here for previous posts on this topic but I am having so much trouble with this search engine lately that I give up on it. Therefore please can someone clear up for me exzctly what you take for the dogs.
Thanks, Nesta

CountryGuy · 09-17-2005, 03:18 AM

Nesta,

Hopefully OntMont will happen along soon, they just had the experience of coming through at Port Huron with dog food. Some was taken from them. I may have their facts wrong, but I believe they said it was dry food, made in the USA, BUT, they had taken OUT of the original packaging. If they had left in the original bag they would have been OK.

BUT, I repeat, they can fill you in on the very specifics of this situation.

Bill and Ann travel with 2 dogs from Canada to USA, they also probably have the "facts".

Nesta · 09-17-2005, 03:49 AM

Thanks CountryGuy. I'll see what they have to say.
Nesta

jrgwdenner · 09-17-2005, 04:23 AM

Nesta, I can speak specifically to this situation. Greta also eats Beneful. We had an unopened package that the customs agent inspected carefully and determined that it was manufactured in the United States, so we got to keep it. They did remove two packages of beef that were processed in Canada, one open package and one unopened. Otherwise, they were looking for citrus. Come to think of it, we had some dry food out of the package but they and we missed it. It was a very congenial search, by the way.

Nesta · 09-17-2005, 05:04 AM

Thanks Judy,
Would you suggest we have an open or un-open bag of food for them to decide on. and is Beneful readily available in the States. My dog would drive us nuts if we had to change her food.
Nesta

jrgwdenner · 09-17-2005, 05:25 AM

Beneful is very available in the US, even at Wally World. It didn't seem to matter if the package was open or not, as long as they could verify that it was manufactured in the US. Any beef or beef products from Canada or anything out of the packaging is conviscated. They're importing live beef at this time but I think they're subject to quarantine.

Is your beneful manufactured in Canada? There should be information on the bag. If so, I would just take enough to get your puppy over the border and then buy a new bag in the States.

Nesta · 09-17-2005, 10:09 AM

Thanks Judy,
All I can find on the package is "Imported by Nestle Purina Petcare". But as long as I can get some in America, then there is no problem. Thank you all for your time.
Nesta

DarMar · 09-17-2005, 11:10 AM

Nesta, we have travelled to the USA with our two dogs on many occasions. Since BSE we have found the inspections to be a little more detailed. Our dogs eat Canadae dog food which is manufactured in the USA. As long as we have a new sealed bag of food the customs people can verify it's origin and we are clear to proceed. You will be taking a gamble I believe if you do it any other way!!!

Nesta · 09-17-2005, 01:37 PM

Thanks DarMar. I think then that I will take a new unopened bag and some loose in a nearly finished bag to tide us over.
Nesta

jrgwdenner · 09-17-2005, 02:25 PM

Glad I could be of some help, Nesta. Are you headed for the Valley, if I may ask?

Nesta · 09-18-2005, 01:29 AM

Judy, We couldn't get in At Bentsen. We are booked into Guadalupe River RV in Kerrville for 3 months starting December. We will be doing a week or two here and there before and after but that isn't decided yet. I would have liked to be nearer the valley to meet you all. but maybe next year.
Nesta

Bill and Ann · 09-18-2005, 02:25 AM

Nesta: Our dogs are on Pro Plan Lamb and Rice. We usually take a small supply with us to get us down to the valley. As it is available in the U.S. we don't worry about taking a large quantity. We have found that the food is different in the U.S. although it is the same name and brand. It is just a different food. Bigger pieces. We normally mix the first batch so they are getting about 50/50 for a while then put them on the U.S. food until we come home again. Then we repeat the procedure up here. We have never had a problem at the border and because things are always changing re what you can bring over I normally phone the U.S. customs office at Ogdensburg, N.Y. before we leave to see what is prohibited. The phone number is 1-315-393-1390. The officers are very helpful and friendly. Try and get down to the valley if you can. There are lots of parks to stay at.

jrgwdenner · 09-18-2005, 04:48 AM

Nesta, we're thinking about driving down to the Valley, too, for Jan. and Feb. but already knew that Bentsen Palm Village was full. I've seen it discussed on another forum, so it must be a popular place. We may just show up without a reservation and hope for the best.

CountryGuy · 09-18-2005, 05:26 AM

There are TONS of campgrounds in the Rio Grande Judy! You should be able to get a spot somewhere, and the area is not that large that we cannot visit around, AND there are the meetings/rally/luncheons we hope to have THIRD THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH! See the Rio Grande/Winter Texan area of the Camping clubs here at MOC.

Repeat, Bentsen Palms Village is not the only place in the Valley! I thought I read that there are 600 campgrounds there?? Not sure that is right, but there are a LOT!

jrgwdenner · 09-18-2005, 08:22 AM

Thanks for the info and encouragement, Carol. We are leaning more and more to showing up in the Valley this spring. Sounds like a great place to be.

Jim · 09-18-2005, 05:28 PM

We have travelled to the US from our home in Kelowna B.C. twice in the last 6 weeks and they havn't even asked us about dog food. The US customs agent was so happy to see our dogs they even have there own supply of dog treats when the greet us. I thought the dog food issue wasn't even on the radar screen any more since the shipment of live cattle started about a month ago.

jrgwdenner · 09-18-2005, 05:43 PM

I didn't expect beef to even be an issue since they were importing live beef from Canada now. But that wasn't the case. The agent checked out our 'frig completely and looked all over the unopened bag of Beneful for a mark indicating that it was from the lower 48. I even asked about the beef imports but she said Canadian beef was still on their forbidden list.

Bill and Ann · 09-18-2005, 11:59 PM

That's correct. Only live beef is allowed into the U.S.

Nesta · 09-19-2005, 01:33 AM

My goodness. Maybe it just depends on the person working at customs at that particular time. and what kind of mood they are in. I guess it is best to be prepared for whatever they want.
Thank you all.
Nesta

OntMont · 09-19-2005, 07:51 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by CountryGuy

Nesta,

Hopefully OntMont will happen along soon, they just had the experience of coming through at Port Huron with dog food.

Sorry, I have not been on the Forum for a few days. Our experience at Port Huron mirrors what others have already said.

Live cattle under 30 mos of age are OK. Anything else with beef, or even might be beef, was confiscated. The one thing that really surprised us was that they confiscated our Medi-Cal dog biscuits which are made from fruit and vegetables, but have added "minerals". The customs officer said that the minerals might be derived from animal sources and she would have to take them. Unfortunately this is a Canadian brand that is not available in the U.S. The officer was very nice and almost apologetic. She advised us of where we could buy replacement dog food at a place with adequate parking for our Montana. She also advised calling the U.S. Customs Office at the point of crossing beforehand to get the latest information on any import restrictions. The ironic thing about the dog food was that it was a new bag of U.S. made Eukanuba that we had transfered to a smaller container for ease of transport in the trailer. We also lost some steaks, hamburgers and meat pies.

We wrongly assumed that the "beef thing" had been settled. It has not, except for live animals under 30 months old.

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