Unsurprisingly, Israel is quite the modern country with highly developed medical capacities and levels of hygiene and health care equal to those of all other evolved countries. Tourists to the land are not asked to undergo any vaccinations before their scheduled arrival.

Arriving in the country with pet animals, however, is limited by certain restrictions. As long as they are being brought in personally by their owners (marked by travel companies as personal baggage), then cats, dogs, rabbits, birds and rodents (except for wild animals and limited to two only of each species) are exempt from having to get a veterinary permit, issued by the Veterinary Services of the Ministry of Agriculture, so long as they also meet the following requirements:

1.A government veterinary health certificate has been issued for them less than seven days before they have left their country of departure, thus testifying that the pet was examined and decreed to have no known infectious diseases. The animal must also have a declaration by its owner that it was in their care and possession for at least 90 days prior to their arrival in Israel.

2.Cats and dogs must have additional confirmation for having been vaccinated against rabies during a period ranging between a minimal thirty days to a maximal one year before they departed for Israel. Dogs which arrive from Oceania, Japan, Great Britain or Cyprus are also required to undergo a vaccination against rabies within five days of arriving in Israel.

3.Cats and dogs which are below the minimal vaccination age (three months) cannot be brought into Israel.

If importing animals as personal baggage, then the transmission of the following information to the Veterinary Services is required. They are situated at Beit Dagan (Fax number: +972-3-968-8963) and the transmission must take place at least forty eight hours before arriving in Israel. The needed information includes the owner’s name; the type of animal; its age; the flight number as well as the estimated time of arrival. In the majority of cases, pets which have arrived healthy and with all of the required documentation do not need to undergo a quarantine period once they’ve arrived in Israel.