Caribbean Cruising with PetsEntry rules for cats & dogs arriving by boat

Leeward Antilles

Bonaire

Rabies vaccine neededVet certificate needed

Before you sail

  • Rabies vaccine at least 3 weeks before arrival
  • Veterinary health certificate
  • Dogs and cats at least 15 weeks old

Not documented Import permit · Rabies titer test · Microchip · Quarantine

Timeline

  1. 3 weeks before arrivalRabies vaccine given by now at the latest
  2. ArrivalPresent the certificate; clear the animal before going ashore.

Quarantine

Quarantine
Not yet documentedconfidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.
If your papers are not in order

Neither the decree summary nor the Belastingdienst guidance mentions quarantine. Absence of a statement is not an exemption — confirm before you sail.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.

If the animal stays aboard

Import rules apply
Not yet documentedconfidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.
Note
DOORVOER IS TRANSIT, AND IT BINDS ALL THREE ISLANDS. Customs states: "De invoer in en de doorvoer door de openbare lichamen Bonaire, Sint Eustatius of Saba van apen, honden en katten alsmede hondachtigen en katachtigen afkomstig uit één van de landen van het vasteland van Zuid- en Midden-Amerika, met uitzondering van Suriname, is verboden." The government's own English edition renders it as "The import and transit of apes, dogs, and cats in and through Bonaire, Saint Eustatius, and Saba, as well as canines and felines from one of the countries of the peninsula of South and Central America, except for Surinam, are forbidden" — read "vasteland" as mainland, not peninsula; the Dutch governs. So for a monkey, dog, cat or other canid or felid coming from mainland South or Central America, Suriname excepted, remaining aboard is not an escape from the rule: transit through any of the three islands is prohibited as squarely as import into it. The stated exception — pets owned four months or more by someone settling on the islands — is an exception to IMPORT, not to transit, and does not help a boat passing through. Everything else about transit is undocumented: the source does not say whether a permitted animal that never lands must meet the import requirements, needs a permit, advance notice or inspection, or must be confined aboard, and it does not define whether "afkomstig uit" follows the animal's origin, its residence history or the vessel's last port. Do not read this one prohibition as a transit regime.

Open questions

High priority

  1. HIGH PRIORITY — the prohibition covers invoer AND doorvoer, import and transit, for monkeys, dogs, cats and other canids and felids from mainland South and Central America, Suriname excepted. Bonaire is about 80 km off Venezuela, so a yacht coming north from Venezuela, Colombia, Panama or the Guianas is arriving from exactly the origins named, and staying aboard is not an escape. Customs does not define whether "afkomstig uit" follows the animal's origin, its residence history or the vessel's last port, and the only stated exception is for someone settling on the island who has owned the animal four months or more — an import exception, not a transit one. Establish which reading applies before committing to a passage, not on arrival.

Also open

  1. What a PERMITTED animal must do to transit is undocumented. No permit, advance notice, confinement requirement, inspection or fee is stated for an animal that never lands. The prohibition is the only transit fact sourced — nothing here should be read as establishing a lighter transit procedure.
  2. No microchip requirement is stated by the Customs guidance, which is unusual enough to be worth confirming. Secondary sites assert a mandatory chip and a chip-before-rabies ordering; the official page states neither. The decree's full text may settle it.
  3. No import permit, quarantine or fee is stated. Secondary sites report a maximum of three animals (dog, cat or ferret) per person for Bonaire; that figure was looked for on the live Customs page on the access date and is not there, so it is not recorded here. Confirm with Customs before assuming any limit, in either direction.
  4. No clearance procedure is sourced for a yacht arriving at Kralendijk. The Customs guidance is written for air travellers, and how an animal is presented, inspected or cleared at a marina or the commercial pier is not addressed.
  5. Bonaire is Dutch but not EU territory — OCT status, so the EU pet regime and EU pet passports do not apply. Its nearest neighbours, Curaçao and Aruba, are constituent countries with their own import law and are not covered by the BES decree. Confirm what documentation Bonaire accepts for an animal arriving from either of them, or from an EU outermost region.
  6. The government's Dutch and English editions of the same page differ. The English edition omits the 15-week minimum age and the 21-day pre-departure rabies interval, and mistranslates "vasteland" (mainland) as "peninsula". The Dutch is treated as governing here; confirm that is right, and confirm the Papiamentu edition does not differ again.

Page status

Leeward Antilles · Public body of the Netherlands (Caribbean Netherlands, BES)Dataset status Inferredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.Last checked 2026-08-12 Recently checkedfreshness: Recently checked. Sources were last re-read 61 days ago, well inside the 180-day window. Recent is not reviewed — this page is still an unreviewed draft.

Evidence

Rabies

Vaccination
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
Min. before travel
21 days (Minimaal 21 dagen vóór vertrek — the vaccination must be given at least 21 days before departure.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[2]
Boosters, and what the certificate must show

The guidance notes that rabies vaccination is not effective in an animal under 12 weeks old, which combined with the 21-day interval sets the practical earliest travel age.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[2]

Veterinary health certificate

Certificate
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
What the certificate must say

Een geldige gezondheidsverklaring getekend door een officiële of daartoe geaccrediteerde dierenarts — a valid health declaration signed by an official or accredited veterinarian. The decree forbids importing a small animal into the public bodies without one.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]

Animals & vaccinations

Dogs

Min. age
105 days (Minimaal 15 weken oud — at least 15 weeks old.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[2]

Cats

Min. age
105 days (Minimaal 15 weken oud — at least 15 weeks old.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[2]

Other health requirements

Note
CITES documentation is required for protected species. The origin prohibition that governs these islands is in the origin_restrictions section, and its transit half is set out in the transit section below, because it is the rare case in this dataset where an animal staying aboard is addressed at all.

Sources

  1. 1

    Besluit invoer kleine dieren BES — Government of the Netherlands — Ministry responsible for agriculture

    legalAccessed 2026-08-12Published 2010-10-10in NL — translated herearchived copy

  2. 2

    Huisdieren — Reizigersbagage, Douanezaken particulieren — Belastingdienst Caribisch Nederland (Netherlands Tax Administration, Caribbean Netherlands) — Douane

    customsAccessed 2026-08-12in NL — translated herearchived copy

  3. 3

    Pets — Traveller luggage, Customs individuals (official English edition) — Belastingdienst Caribisch Nederland (Netherlands Tax Administration, Caribbean Netherlands) — Customs

    customsAccessed 2026-08-12archived copy

Last checked August 2026 · 1 high-priority open question · Sources & questions

What the dots mean

confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer. official-backed, awaiting human reviewconfidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet. not yet documented· How we grade