CDC Puppy Ban Leaves Hundreds of Turks and Caicos Potcakes Homeless

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos — The Turks and Caicos Islands’ only charity dog rescue is feeling the effects of a US puppy import rule that has grounded puppy adoptions to a near-halt.

For 25 years, Potcake Place K9 Rescue on Providenciales has helped young potcakes—the local dog breed of the Turks and Caicos—find forever homes with tourists, who can apply to bring home a puppy at the end of their trip.

Since Aug. 1, 2024, when the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ban on importing dogs less than six months old took effect, Potcake Place has been unable to find homes for hundreds of potcake puppies.

“For the first time since I started Potcake Place in 2004, I’ve had to turn away litters of puppies,” says Jane Parker-Rauw, the rescue’s director and founder. “And it’s heartbreaking.”

According to the CDC, the logic behind the ban is preventing rabies—specifically, dog-maintained rabies virus variant (DMRVV)—from entering the country. The ban states that dogs less than six months of age cannot enter the United States, regardless of where they are coming from.

While rabies is a valid concern, acknowledges Parker-Rauw, the ban makes no exception for countries that are low-risk for DMRVV or DMRVV-free, such as the Turks and Caicos Islands. Furthermore, there is no requirement for dogs to have been vaccinated against rabies before entering the US if they’re arriving from a low-risk for rabies or rabies-free country.

“As it stands, I could send a two-year-old dog on a private jet into the United States that’s never received a vaccine, because it’s from Turks and Caicos, a DMRVV-free country. But I can’t send a fully vaccinated four-month-old puppy,” says Parker-Rauw. “It makes no sense.”

By the time Turks and Caicos potcakes are six months old, most exceed the weight and size restrictions for traveling in airline cabins. Planes traveling between Turks and Caicos and the United States won't allow pets in the hold, says Parker-Rauw, meaning the only way to transport them is by private jet.

Since the ban, the rescue’s US adoptions have dropped from 500 a year to around 5 per month.

The United States accounts for over 80% of visitors to the Turks and Caicos Islands, according to official tourism statistics, and the vast majority of Potcake Place’s adoptions. While puppies less than six months of age can still be adopted to Canada, which accounts for 7% of the tourism market, Canadian adoptions alone cannot makeup the difference.

Potcake Place began with the mission of reducing the population of homeless dogs in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The organization takes in, fosters, vaccinates and sterilizes, and adopts out potcake puppies to families who must undergo Potcake Place's vetting process before they can adopt a dog. The rescue also collaborates with other organizations to organize spay and neuter clinics that fix stray potcakes. Every Potcake Place puppy is fully vaccinated before it is adopted to a home abroad.

“We agree that reducing the spread of rabies is a valid concern, one hundred percent,” says Parker-Rauw. “But we are saying, let’s be reasonable here, and let’s be able to send a fully vaccinated dog into the United States at four months.”

Homeless dogs in the Turks and Caicos face myriad threats—vehicle strikes, poisoning, starvation, and disease among them. Many residents of Providenciales remember a time when dogs were shot to keep packs in check. The impact of controlling a potentially explosive population of homeless dogs could have serious negative effects on the Turks and Caicos tourism industry, as seen in countries like Turkey. Many of the puppies the Potcake Place has had to turn away since the start of the ban have likely already had litters of puppies themselves.

“Two dogs in six years, if none of their offspring die, will produce 62,000 dogs,” says Parker-Rauw. “It’s going to take years of getting back from [the progress we’ve lost] over the last 12 months. I can’t stress how in such a short period of time, this is going to have such an impact on tourism here.”

The Potcake Place is a popular tourist destination, as it offers tourists the opportunity to take puppies out for socialization walks on Grace Bay Beach.