The recent news that the EU was tightening up its rules on UK residents travelling with their animals is just the latest blow against pet-owners in search of the open road. For the past five years there has been a conspiracy, it seems – not least from their own government – to make their lives impossible.

One UK pet-owner has clearly had enough and decided to take action

Until 2021, British pet-owners could travel under the EU pet passport scheme. With this inexpensive document (costing around £60) you were allowed to make up to 28 trips to and from the continent, with no time limit. Since Brits lost the right to such passports, for obvious reasons, in 2021, they’ve been required instead to pay for a one-use Animal Health Certificate, an altogether more restrictive document. Not only are such certificates pricey – my local vet charges £264.10 – they’re also time-consuming to apply for, have a ten-day window for departure, are single-entry, and last for just four months. No longer can a Brit simply whisk up Fido or Tabitha, jump on a flight for a weekend in Paris, and have them back by Monday morning. The whole process must now be planned like a military campaign.

In May 2025 it was announced in the media that finally, under a new deal with the EU, pet passports were to be reintroduced in the UK, but since then there has been prevarication, drift and, at the time of writing, no date has yet been set. It’s enough to get you rabid with annoyance and barking with frustration. But perhaps the worst thing of all for UK pet-owners is that while it’s easy enough to fly out of the country with your animals, it’s well-nigh impossible to fly them back in again.

This applies both to those who want to bring their animals in carrycases into the cabin or check them in as luggage. Though the UK government supplies a list of approved airlines for returning to the UK, there are also strict rules about the pets having to be brought in as ‘cargo’ (something ruinously expensive, often running into four-figure sums). All this, unless you’re loaded, means taking other, more cumbersome routes. When I had to return with two cats in 2022 – from Italy, where I’d fled from Russia after Putin’s Special Military Operation began – the process involved a taxi, a long train trip to Rome, a flight to Paris, and a second train to Calais, with special pet tickets and night stops along the way so the cats could be fed, watered and have access to their litter tray. It was a journey that required the same precision and forward-thinking as a bank heist, and just as much anticipation of whatever could go wrong. Unfortunately, it was my own account that got cleaned out.

Because once in Calais, as I wasn’t travelling by car, the hassles didn’t end. Neither Le Shuttle nor the bulk of ferries would allow me on as a foot passenger. This meant either persuading an English friend to drive over and pick me up – for which I’d feel honour-bound to reimburse them, both for fuel and effort – or booking a taxi from Calais to Folkestone (which, along with Le Shuttle tickets, came to about 400 euros for a 40-minute trip). I’ve since discovered that a tiny number of ferry companies – Stena Lines and DFDS among them – do allow you to walk on with your pets and even provide kennel space for them, but only to and from a narrow number of locations – all of which, if you’ve been holidaying outside countries like France or Holland, must be arrived at by peripatetic means. Why can’t UK pet owners simply jump on a plane and, provided the animals are properly vaccinated and documented, fly back to Britain with them, checked into the hold or – with a single animal – stored in a carrycase in the cabin? They can, I repeat, do this flying out.

One UK pet-owner has clearly had enough and decided to take action. Holly Middleton, owner of Peggy, ‘Britain’s ugliest dog’ (whose tickertape-tongued features have appeared in several films), has now set up a petition: ‘Allow small pets to travel in the cabin on flights entering the UK.’

‘Allow airlines, under DEFRA guidance,’ the blurb elaborates underneath, ‘to offer an in-cabin travel option for small, fully documented pets on flights entering the UK, in line with international standards for other countries.’ This mightn’t have been much help to me back in 2022 – I had two cats at the time, whose travel case had to be checked in – yet would be revolutionary for those travelling with just one.

Of course, there has been opposition. The organisation Allergy UK (a name to make the stomach sink) has argued, reportedly, that the presence of pets in the cabin could trigger allergic reactions, including chronic asthma. Yet many airlines have allowed this for years and, as I write, we’ve yet to see an epidemic of airborne deaths from breathing in one of Fido or Tabitha’s stray particles. Others claim the animals may suffer and behave unpredictably, forgetting that with many flight companies this way of transporting them is standard practice and has been so for years. The idea – except for the naysayers – is sensible and good.

I wish great luck to Holly Middleton’s petition and, along with 14,000 others, have wasted no time in signing it. The benefits to Brits who wish to travel with their pets will be incalculable, and transform their trips abroad. Following this absurd five-year hiatus, it’s time we were let off the leash.