Tapestry Bengals

CITES Information:
How to legally ship your cat internationally.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was established internationally (with participating countries) to ensure that populations of plant and animal species are not threatened by commercial trade and demand. While not completely banning the trade of these species, CITES does carefully regulate their trade... including hybrids, body parts, plant parts and products.

Regulation is maintained through a system of permits and classifications. At this time, there are three Appendix classifications that regulated species fall under.

APPENDIX I
These are the species that would be affected the most by uncontrolled trade. These species are usually already threatened with extinction and are therefore the most tightly governed. To ship a species from this classification, you require two separate permits... one to import the animal into the destination country and one to export the animal from the country of origin.

APPENDIX II
While not presently endangered, these species could easily become so if their trade was not governed. Import permits are not required, but exportation permits are a must. Due to their hybrid classification by government bodies (even though they are considered a domestic cat by the fourth generation away from the Asian Leopard Cat), the Bengal cat falls under this classification as the Asian Leopard Cat (felis bengalensis) in the breed's background falls under the Appendix II listing of protected species. To ship a Bengal out of one country and into another, you MUST have the proper exportation permits. If you do not go through the proper permit process, the animal can be seized and held due to your neglect. If you are the person shipping the animal out of the country, this may not seem to effect you in any negative manner... however, remember that the person on the other end can lose their new pet... the animal can be wrenched out of its new home... and you may be more carefully scrutinized in the future. Yes, it is a little more hassle, but at this time, this is the way things must be done until the SBT generations of Bengal are recognized as domestics and not hybrids by government agencies.

APPENDIX III
The species that fall under this classification are placed there by choice of the country of origin. While the species may not be near threatened status in any other country, it may be within the country that chooses to have the species placed under protection. To ship this animals, an export permit is required only when shipping out of the country of origin that has listed the species as one to watch out for. If the specimen did not originate from that country, a certificate of origin must be issued by the country of origin to allow exportation.

These are the three main breakdowns of how different species are classified by CITES. Other special permits and circumstances also exist... only those affecting the Bengal cat will be listed here for the sake of brevity.

RE-EXPORT
If you have already imported the animal into a particular country but find yourself needing to ship the animal out again (for example: selling a breeding queen to another country, going to an international show across the border) you must get a re-export/re-import permit

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