MMM Club Members save with P&O Ferries

Subscribers to MMM can enjoy five per cent off P&O Ferry crossings on all sailings (including accommodation), on routes from Dover to Calais and Hull to Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. Click here for details.

The discount will be welcome news to the growing number of MMM readers who are taking their pets abroad, as figures just released reveal that 2012 is set to be a record-breaking year for the number of pets holidaying abroad, with figures expected to double, according to P&O Ferries.

Last year, the ferry company carried 19,478 pets on its Dover to Calais route. In just the first five months of 2012, P&O has transported more than 13,000 pets on the service. As bookings increase dramatically in the summer, this figure is expected to rocket past last year’s total before July.

P&O Ferries’ Brian Rees said: “Pets have tended to be in the paw relation when it comes to overseas holidays, but this year we’re seeing a dramatic rise in the number of pet owners who pre-fur to travel with their pets rather than face being parted from them.

“With household budgets cut to the bone, many owners have realised they’d be barking mad to pay for kennels and catteries rather than take their mutts and moggies on holiday with them. There is also now a better choice of pet-friendly accommodation available on the continent, and the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) process has been simplified.”

PETS allows dogs, cats and ferrets to return from overseas travel without being quarantined by verifying that they’ve been microchipped and vaccinated against rabies.

P&O Ferries was the first company to transport a pet – a pug called Frodo Baggins – under the scheme when it was launched in 2000. Since then it has carried a quarter of a million pets on its routes to France, Holland and Belgium.

Information about the Pet Travel Scheme is available from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs here.

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