July 19, 2019
A woman who has settled in New Zealand is appealing for New Zealanders to donate $13,500 so she can bring her pet dog from Iran.
Salome Khandar, 30, rescued her terrier poodle cross Tilu six years ago and now wants to bring him to her home in Auckland.
But Khandar, who is originally from Tehran, was shocked to discover the cost of a flight for an unaccompanied animal plus fees and medical expenses to admit an animal to New Zealand, which has very tough veterinary laws.
Khandar, who first moved to New Zealand in 2007, rescued the dog when she was living back in Iran in 2013. “My mum didn’t approve at all first. She didn’t want a dog. I begged her to let me keep him, and promised I would take him back to New Zealand with me.
“I thought it would be only a couple of grand max and as easy as filling out some forms and going through quarantine. Turns out I was very wrong about how costly, frustrating, stressful, and almost impossible it was going to be.”
She “instinctively” brought Tilu home with her when she came across him as tiny puppy with a shaggy white coat, who had been abused and abandoned by his owners.
After a year, Khandar returned to New Zealand and began looking into bringing Tilu over when she encountered the first obstacle. Iran was not an approved country from which to bring animals, so Tilu needed to spend at least six months living in an approved country.
Tilu has now moved to Germany and is living with some of Khandar’s family members. He still needs extensive health checks and vaccinations before he can complete his journey and be reunited with Khandar.
“If I don’t figure out how to get Tilu here soon, he’ll be homeless as my family said they can’t keep him. We simply cannot abandon him there, he’s family.
“The thought of abandoning him makes us sick, we have tried finding him a good loving home but he’s almost six years old now and nobody wants him, he has no one but us.”
A New Zealand official said both cats and dogs could only be imported into the country from places that are rabies-free, or where rabies was well-controlled.
“In order for New Zealand to accept cat and dog imports from a country, there needs to be an agreement in place between that country and New Zealand. This agreement is reached after a robust country approval process has taken place to make sure that the country can meet New Zealand’s import requirements. In the case of Iran, this agreement is not currently in place.”
Khandar, who works for an engineering company, told the New Zealand website Stuff that pets, especially dogs, are frowned upon in Iran and she was looking forward to being able to give Tilu the life he deserved in New Zealand.
“Dogs aren’t welcomed by the government or police, they can be taken away from their owners if seen in public for no reason, they’re banned from parks, basically, they’re prisoners in one’s apartment, and every time you take them for a walk, you have to be so cautious of not going to the wrong place, at the wrong time, and be seen by the wrong people who think your animal is a sin.”
Khandar has worked out she will need probably $13,500 to get Tilu to New Zealand, to cover the costs of 15 vet visits before he can get on a plane, an import permit, vet inspection, quar- antine facilities and fees, return flights to Germany so she can take Tilu to all of his appointments, along with air freight fees.
She said if she can’t raise enough funds she’ll have to take out a personal loan.