I guess it’s not surprising but it’s sad when people are skirting the pathetically lax canine import regulations and falsifying rabies vaccination status. In the US, the CDC has issued a Health Alert because of an increasing number of dogs that are being imported with "questionable" documentation of rabies vaccination.

These dogs are destined for various sources, including on-line sales, pet stores and adoption agencies. Various breeds are involved and some dogs are falsely identified as being from the US.

Concerns were raised when it was noted that importers were providing inaccurate vaccination certificates. Currently, dogs that are 4 months of age or older and which are vaccinated against rabies at least 30 days prior are imported with essentially no restrictions. So, importers are either falsifying vaccination records (indicating dogs have been vaccinated when they have not) or lying about their age. Instances of falsifying birth location and breed have also been identified.

Because of these problems and the lack of any foreseeable effort to bring any form of import controls into play, the CDC is recommending that veterinarians "strongly recommend" vaccination against rabies if the owner of a new patient is unable to provide an original rabies certificate, if the certificate comes from an unknown source, or if the reported age does not match the appearance of the animal.

Too bad there’s not an effort to charge people with falsifying data pertaining to an almost invariably fatal disease…