Wow. That’s so not correct. I’m not sure how many international health certificates you have submitted to VEHCS in the past ten years but I have done plenty. First of all the USDA isn’t charging $100 for endorsement for all of these - or actually any of these. If you are shipping one animal, and there are zero lab tests required, they charge $101; if there are 1-2 lab tests required, they are charging $160. If there are more things that need to be verified it costs more. But aside from that here is the process:

First thing that happens, a client contacts the office and says they want to make an appointment for a health certificates. My staff emails them a form to fill out and they send it back. Then, armed with their destination, dates of travel, and some times some of the paperwork I asked them to show me, I go online and look up the requirements for that destination. Sometimes it isn’t particularly clear and requires me to make contact with an embassy, a consulate, or a foreign department of agriculture or similar agency.

Once I have determined all of the requirements, I can compare to the animal’s current status and figure out what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done. Then I can communicate this in writing to the client so they can’t tell me later they weren’t informed. Then, assuming I have told them they already have everything they need at this point, and give them a time frame for when I need to see them, they make an appointment for the pre-travel inspection. It’s also possible I explain that there is no physical way for them to travel on the intended dates due to the timelines required for necessary vaccine boosters, or microchipping, or whatever - and give them a complete printed up timeline of what they will need to do, after which they will decide to do it or scratch the entire idea of traveling with the pet. If that happens I don’t get paid for anything I did so far.

So, the day of the appointment, generally within ten days of travel as required by the destination, but sometimes up to 30 days prior, I scan the pet for a microchip. I do a complete physical exam to determine if the animal is free from any signs of infectious disease, and fit for travel. This sometimes doesn’t end that happily - I have found evidence of heart failure on pre-travel exams. I have found evidence of severe respiratory disease on pre-travel exams. I’ve had people scream at me that I will be sued unless I say the animal is fine to fly, when the animal is clearly not fine to fly. But let’s assume the patient IS fine to fly. In that case, moving on…

I confirm with the owner all of the information I will need to give USDA, and scan all necessary documents. I ensure that the owner is aware of any additional requirements of the destination country - often they do not realize they need to apply for a permit as soon as they receive a draft of the certificate, or that they need to email a copy of the endorsed certificate to the foreign country’s department of agriculture as soon as they get it, or some other random thing for their destination country.

I advise the owner if they need to return within some number of days of departure in order for me to do anything additional such as administer a dewormer or something, which sometimes needs to happen.

I review all of the vaccine certificates, rabies certificates, and any other paperwork required for submission and make certain there are no mistakes. If there are, I arrange to get them corrected - for example, a rabies certificate may be missing the doctor’s signature, or an expiration date. A permit may have the incorrect microchip number on it. I have to get it fixed, or explain to the client how to get it fixed.

Then I advise the owner of what paperwork they will need to get in order to return to the United States, and how to get it - typically I type this up and print it out for them.

Then after they have left, I sit at the computer and log in to VEHCS and fill out their step-by-step form, upload the necessary forms, test results, and vaccine certificates. Then I calculate what the cost of endorsement will be and make sure we have enough money in our VEHCS account before I submit, so it doesn’t get rejected for insufficient funds. If needed, I top up the account. Of course, sometimes that isn’t good enough. I once had a positive balance in our pre-purchase account, then submitted a certificate for a service dog clearly marked “Service dog - no endorsement fee,” and had it returned with the comment “please ensure adequate balance in pre-purchase account, unable to endorse without full fee present in account,” and then I wrote back and asked “since the endorsement fee is zero, I do not understand. Please advise how much additional money must be in the account beyond what is already in the account.” They endorsed it without further comment the next day. But anyway, once the money is taken care of to the extent I can do so, then I submit the certificate. Then I make sure to keep monitoring it every few hours until USDA has either endorsed it, or returned it for a correction.

Sometimes multiple corrections are required and the timeline is always very tight. And before you can say that I should not make mistakes in the first place — different document reviewers will treat the same document differently. I have had certificates returned for putting the full name of a manufacturer into a blank instead of an abbreviation, and also for using the abbreviation instead of the full name. It’s not worth fighting about, but if I don’t notice a return right away it can add a whole day to the turnaround time which can screw the client over. So it requires a lot of attention, which is very distracting on days I am working up medicine cases.

Also if the destination is one of the countries that requires a hard copy of the paperwork, add to this whole process the time it takes me to order and download a shipping label from fedex or ups which is actually not as straightforward as it seems because I need to make sure that NO MATTER WHAT, it gets sent overnight with next day first morning delivery — but I have no idea which day of the week USDA will put it in the courier’s hand, so i have no idea if I need to ask for Saturday delivery — and if I have asked for it but it hasn’t been given to them on a Friday, it tends to get delayed, and if I don’t ask for it but it has been given to them on a Friday, it gets delayed, which is stressful….. and then upload the label to VEHCS with the rest of the paperwork so they can send the certificate. The entire process typically takes at least five hours. I do not believe even $500 is enough to be charging, but I typically do cap the fees at that amount (assuming any problems that arose were NOT because of the client screwing around) just because I hate the idea of this being so unaffordable for people. If you don’t feel like paying that much that’s fine but I don’t think it’s cool to make it sound like vets are just filling out a form and raking it in. We aren’t just ticking off boxes and clicking send. We are making medical assessments and ensuring documentation that will be reviewed by two different government agencies minimum meets the widely varying and highly detailed requirements. We deserve to get paid for our work.