shipping from the U.S. to Canada?

There are soooo many beautiful animals in the U.S.A and I have been trying to buy from there but no one seems to know how to do so. I try emailing people in the states and they cant figure out how to do it. I am trying to get suburst veiled chameleons over here and since there are veiled I didnt see the problem but appearently there is one. Does anybody know the steps on how I would come about being able to do this or even for other reptiles? Thanks for your time.

For a person in the USA to ship anywhere outside the USA they have to be licensed by the federal government as an importer/exporter of live reptiles. They also have to be verified as a known shipper with a major comercial airline to be able to ship and if it applies to the animals involved, they must file for CITES paperwork to export animals that fall under it's jurisdiction. All of this is very time consuming and costs money. Since 9/11 many people in the business, including myself, have let our paperwork expire as things got so difficult due to the national security issues involved with airline safety, etc.. So then, after you find somebody capable of legally exporting to you, you have to import the animals which involves quite a bit on your end. You may try talking to somebody in Canada that deals with it on a regular basis, like Corey Woods.

We just completed a shipment to Canada from the U.S. It's not terribly difficult, just rather time consuming.

The shipper (U.S. based) needs an import/export license and a CITES permit for the animals to be shipped. A health certificate from a veterinarian as well as an inspection at the time of shipping are also required. Because we do not have a shipping port at our airport we also required a port exception permit. The recipient (in Canada) also had to pay an import duty when he picked up the animals.

The most difficult aspect of this transaction was waiting for the weather to cooperate. We used United for shipping although Air Canada and Delta would have also taken the animals. According to the Canadian buyer FedEx will also work.

In order to comply with all the paperwork and associated fees I would plan on adding $200 to the purchase price and shipping cost.