If you are planning to bring your pet or pets to Serbia, it is very important to inform yourself about the conditions, rules and procedures.

If you are coming to Serbia with your pet from most European countries, you must meet the following conditions:

• Your pet must be permanently marked - with a microchip;
• Your pet must be vaccinated against rabies with at least one antigenic unit per dose (recommendation of the World Health Organization); or by a recombinant vaccine that expresses the immunizing glycoprotein of the rabies virus in a live viral vector and that 21 days have passed since the day of vaccination, in the case of the first vaccination against rabies;
• All preventive measures necessary for the protection of public health and the health of pets must be met in order to control diseases or infections that are not rabies, which could spread due to the movement of those same pets, in accordance with the regulations governing veterinary medicine;
• Your pet must be accompanied by a correctly completed passport issued by an authorized veterinarian of the country you are coming from.

If your pet is younger than 12 weeks or between 12 and 16 weeks old, it can enter Serbia if:

• You submit a signed statement that the pet has had no contact with wild animals susceptible to rabies from birth to the moment of travel; or
• Your pet is accompanied by its mother on whom it is still dependent, and if from the passport accompanying the mother it can be established that before its birth the mother was vaccinated against rabies in accordance with the conditions regarding vaccination.

For these pets, you do not need to have a veterinary certificate issued by the competent veterinary authority.

If you are coming to Serbia with your pet from other countries, you must meet the following conditions:

• Your pet must be permanently marked - with a microchip;
• Your pet must be vaccinated against rabies with at least one antigenic unit per dose (recommendation of the World Health Organization); or by a recombinant vaccine that expresses the immunizing glycoprotein of the rabies virus in a live viral vector and that 21 days have passed since the day of vaccination, in the case of the first vaccination against rabies;
• All preventive measures necessary for the protection of public health and the health of pets must be met in order to control diseases or infections that are not rabies, which could spread due to the movement of those same pets, in accordance with the regulations governing veterinary medicine;
• Your pet must be accompanied by a correctly completed passport issued by an authorized veterinarian of the country you are coming from.

You can find other information and forms on the official website of the Ministry of Agriculture.

There are no official data, but unofficially there are one and a half million microchipped dogs and thirty thousand microchipped cats living in the Republic of Serbia. However, it is estimated that the number of cat pets is ten times higher. According to the data of the Serbian Kennel Club, about 40,000 new pedigrees for dogs are issued annually. All the above numbers indicate that the Republic of Serbia is among the leaders in the world in terms of the number of pets in relation to the number of inhabitants.

It is useful to know that in Serbia pets are viewed very favourably and it is very common for pets to live with their owners in houses as well as apartments. However, when choosing a place to live, we still advise you to ask if pets are allowed there.

In recent years, dozens of dog parks have been built in the city municipalities in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, Subotica, Kruševac and Leskovac. Also, there are more and more "pet friendly" cafes, beauty salons and shopping centres. Supermarkets and specialized stores for pet food, equipment and toys are well supplied and distributed throughout the Republic of Serbia.

Veterinary clinics provide quality professional care, and dog or cat boarding is available when you have to travel and want to be sure your pet is safe. You may find this guide to dog boarding and accommodation helpful. It is important that you know that there is a certain number of on-call veterinary clinics for emergency interventions that operate 24 hours a day throughout the year. At this address you can find a list of public veterinary clinics and shelters in Belgrade, while here can find information for the same services if you live in Novi Sad area