Pet Quarantine Laws Eased for Britons

To the relief of thousands of pet owners, Britain is dropping its severe quarantine laws for eligible animals arriving from other rabies-free countries. Instead of spending six months in a kennel, each eligible animal will have to qualify for a kind of "pet passport" with blood tests, a vaccination against rabies and the insertion of an identification microchip under the skin. The scrapping of the quarantine by April 2001 for rabies-free, mainly European Union countries will allow Britons to take their pets back and forth to those countries.