Taking pet ashes back to the US.
Posted by Eladoog@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 12 comments
This post may be a bit of a mess but I wanted to hear if anyone had to deal with this. I am an American citizen currently living in Poland and I will be for the next year to year and a half and this morning my dog passed away. My wife and I are getting her cremated and I wanted to know if we will have any issues taking her ashes back to the US when we move. She was a 10 year old husky who weighed 21 kilos, it’s not like there will be a lot of ashes but is it considered a biological hazard? Being 10 we weren’t sure if she would make it back to the US but we weren’t expecting this to happen so soon so we haven’t done any research on taking her ashes back and now I’m all over the place and not sure where to start researching this. Thank you.
moosebirdd@reddit
I am about to go through a similar thing— were you able to get through security okay? What did they ask for? Did the ashes stay in the urn or did you transfer them to a clear plastic bag?
Eladoog@reddit (OP)
I’m moving next month, I will probably update this after I go.
moosebirdd@reddit
Well, I’m actually leaving next week so I’ll update you instead 👍
fitpandaparty@reddit
I'm so sorry for your loss!
I just moved back to the US from Germany and brought back the cremated remains of my dog (20ish kg). I told Delta airlines that his remains were in my checked luggage and they said it wasn't a problem. I had a death certificate for him as well but no one asked for it.
Strict-Armadillo-199@reddit
Double check the country laws as well. To the best of my understanding, Germany for example does not allow for the transportation of pet cremains. It's something I've been meaning to look further into for my own personal reasons.
I'm so sorry for your loss. My dog is my everything and I try not to think about the inevitable.
💜
sweet_tater_precious@reddit
I had to do this last year moving from the US to Ireland. We had her cremains box and her certificate in our carry on because I didn't want to risk it getting lost in checked baggage.
The TSA person was very kind, asked if they were remains, and a special screening was required. They ran the box through the scanner again and then wiped it down with those same things they use to test for drugs. And that was it. She was apologetic the whole time.
Our dog had just died a month before the move and we had hoped to take her, so I was really appreciative of the extra gentleness.
I'm so sorry for the loss of your pup, and hope this piece of it is as painless as it can be.
Eladoog@reddit (OP)
Thank you, it’s all pretty fresh right now. She was a fantastic dog and we really miss her.
mayfeelthis@reddit
I’d double check with your local airport, if they won’t let you leave the country with it at security check it would be horrible.
Not to worry you, but airport security are not always the most compassionate (they do have rules to follow…).
Sorry for your loss.
sweet_tater_precious@reddit
I know exactly how that feels. Our one year without her was this week and it's just so hard when you lose a great dog.
Wishing you some peace.
BlueStreakedSilver@reddit
I'm so sorry that you lost your friend ❤️
I recently brought my cat's ashes to the US from Belgium in my carry-on luggage. Like the other commenter said, you'll want to check with your airline and everything when the time comes, but there shouldn't be any trouble.
Two things you'll want to do now though are to keep the cremation certificate to keep with the cremains during travel. And to keep the ashes in a clear plastic container, so that they can be examined by security if necessary (I read that they won't open up a container and won't allow you to). I had my cat's ashes in a plastic bag inside of her urn, so I just took the bag out and placed it in plastic container.
JediTigger@reddit
Airlines and customs have different regulations for cremains. You should be fine as long as you have a certificate for the cremation and it’s in a secure container.
I am so sorry for your loss.
Eladoog@reddit (OP)
Thank you, she was my best friend and it was really sudden, my wife and I didn’t really have any time to prepare.