The UK Pet Travel Scheme has been celebrating 10 years of driving dogs, caravanning cats and ferrying ferrets.

The UK Pet Travel Scheme has been celebrating 10 years of driving dogs, caravanning cats and ferrying ferrets.

Since February 28, 2000, pet passports have enabled 660,000 journeys to be made by animals without them having to be quarantined.

Criteria for controlling disease must be met before any pet can travel.

The first animal to travel with a passport was a dog, a pug called Frodo Baggins - since then around six in every 10 pets with passports have belonged to UK owners, entrenching the fact that we are a nation of animal lovers.

The changes were made in response to demand from people to be able to travel with their pets, coupled with the ever-smaller risk of disease.

The European Union introduced a similar system in 2004, which has also been a success.

Not a single case of rabies has been associated with the scheme, with cases of the disease steadily reducing across Europe.

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