Heathrow Animal Reception Centre

The City of London is the local authority for the 'Square Mile', the financial and commercial heart of Britain. Since the 1850’s it has played an important role in the development of animal health and welfare. Currently, its responsibilities for imported animal welfare and the prevention of imported disease extend to well beyond the boundaries of the 'Square Mile' to all of Greater London. This area, covering some 610 square miles, including the River Thames, Erith to Hampton, and includes Heathrow Airport where the City of London’s animal health and welfare service ensure that it has a highly experienced staff resource. Because of this, it is able to offer agency arrangements to other London boroughs whose animal health and welfare facilities are less extensive. Currently the City of London offers full services covering three areas; maintaining animal health, preventing imported disease and caring for animal welfare to 23 boroughs.

The City of London runs the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre (HARC) to carry out its main statutory responsibilities under the Animal Health Act, 1981, this legislation incorporates Rabies controls and the Welfare of Animals During Transport Order 1997. The City of London also has responsibilities for other UK and European animal related legislation. The City of London also administers a Rabies Contingency plan in which 21 London boroughs participate.

A world leader in the care of animals

The Heathrow Animal Reception Centre - formerly known as the Animal Quarantine Station – is part of the Veterinary Sector of the City of London’s Environmental Services Directorate and has over the past 25 years established itself as a world leader in the care of animals during transport.

Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year receiving and caring for literally millions of animals of all types – including everything from tarantulas, cobras, race horses, tigers, cattle, cats and dogs and even baby elephants – the HARC has the facilities to cope with almost any animal.

Live animal Border Inspection Post (BIP)

The Animal Reception Centre is the live animal Border Inspection Post at Heathrow.

All animals entering the EU from outside the European Union have to pass through a Border Inspection Post so they can be inspected and have a Border Crossing Certificate issued. This is issued by part of DEFRA, the State Veterinary Service, personnel of which, are based within the HARC compound.

Pets Travel Scheme

Since November 1999 dogs and cats from the EU have been allowed to enter the UK without doing the statutory six months quarantine, provided they can fulfil the requirements under the PETS Scheme. In the meantime, other countries have been added to the list, with the USA and Canada joining in 2002.

The scheme, by air, allows airlines who wish to participate to become approved by DEFRA. The approval process ensures DEFRA that the airline has the processes in place to meet the requirements of the scheme. DEFRA also have to approve the routes that the airlines wish to fly in from. Thus, potential users must check the list of approved routes and airlines, which can be found on the DEFRA website.

The scheme consists of preparing your animal.

For cats and dogs, it is necessary to have the animal micro-chipped first. Then, the animal must be vaccinated against rabies. After a period of about four weeks, the animal can then have a blood test to make sure that the vaccination has worked. The vet who takes the blood test will send the sample to one of the approved laboratories so they can carry out this test. Six months from the date the blood was taken.

PETS animals arriving at Heathrow have all the necessary checks done at the HARC. Once we have established that everything is in order the owners can take them home. If for any reason the animal fails, we endeavour to sort out any problems we can help with. However, it is sometimes necessary for animals to be moved to a quarantine premises if problems cannot be sorted out within a day or so.

PETS information can be found on DEFRA PETS page or by telephoning +44 (0)870 2411710 Mon – Fri 8.30am – 5.00pm

There is a similar scheme for bringing in cats and dogs, and ferrets into other EU member states, (except Sweden which has a similar regime to the UK and Eire). The main difference is that the blood test only has to be done three months before entry, and not six as in the U.K. and Sweden. Information on the EU regulation can be found on DEFRA EU Regulations page.

Quarantine

Animals that do not meet the requirements of the Pet Travel Scheme, can still be imported and go into quarantine. There are commercially run quarantine kennels throughout the U.K. Quarantine is still for six months and information can be found on DEFRA Quarantine page.

Dangerous dogs

Certain types of dogs cannot be owned in the UK. For information on these breeds, please see DEFRA dangerous dogs page.

The aquatic trade

Fish and other aquatic creatures entering the UK through Heathrow do so through the HARC. CVED’s for approximately 35,000,000 fish are issued each year at Heathrow.

Our facilities

Facilities for the care and welfare of animals being held at the Centre are equal to, or better than, any other such facility world-wide. The dog and cat holding facilities have individually heated areas with access to a large outdoor run. There are four reptile and amphibian holding rooms, one of which is equipped with a computer controlled misting system so that humidity can be set to that required by the particular animals. The other three rooms are currently being updated and automated.

The dedicated bird wing has its own air handling unit that that provides heating and air filtration individually to each of the rooms in which the birds reside. This ensures that all the air passing out of the rooms is clean, eradicating the risk of bacterial and viral infection to native fauna outside the centre. The rooms are also under negative pressure to eliminate cross contamination between bird shipments.

A computer controlled lighting system has been installed so that the birds natural daytime/night time can be copied. This sophisticated system also imitates sunrise and sunset and gives variable moonlight too. Birds from tropical latitudes can be given high intensity light, whilst those that require less light such as birds of prey can be given less.

The Large Animal Facility was provided by British Airports Authority and is constructed to cater for horses and farm stock imports.

There is also a small surgery on site so that any animals that become sick during their journey can be treated on site.

Animals arrive at the centre as a consequence of being in transit either through or to Heathrow Airport, from all over the world. The HARC’s main responsibility is to enforce the statutory requirements of relevant United Kingdom and European Union legislation with regard to the importation of animals into the UK and EU and the transport of animals by air.

The HARC also work very closely with the CITES enforcement team, a special team set up by Customs to investigate the trade in endangered species, as Customs have the responsibility of enforcing this legislation. CITES, stands for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora. The HARC identify the animals that come in and customs check the species against the licences and paperwork. Many seizures are made by customs each year.

Training

HARC are experts in the field of Animal Welfare and this expertise is much sought after by other organisations. The HARC can provide training for organisations, such as Police Forces and local authorities, who regularly come into contact with domestic or wild animals.

Courses are held in the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre and usually require people to arrive at 9.30am with the course starting at 10.00 am and finishing at 4.30 pm on the day arranged.

The minimum number of people that we can accept on the course is six. The maximum number of people that we can accommodate is ten. The cost of the course is £80 per day per person and includes lunch.

Please contact us by email or complete and return the application form below if you are interested in arranging training for your organisation. We try to design courses to your specific requirements therefore please provide us with as much information as possible so that we can plan the course. A member of the Animal Reception Centre will then contact you to progress your enquiry.

HARC Training Services Enquiry Form (152kb)

Clients have the option of paying the City of London's invoice for these training services online. See Paying your bill online.

Contact details for the HARC

You can contact us by email

or Tel 020 8745 7894

or Fax 020 8759 3477.

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