This is the story of two Russian Red foxes Mikhail & Nikolai…

A pet shipping story… Several years ago Airpets International was contacted by British Air in need of assistance. Two Russian Red foxes had been shipped to DFW airport and were unable to clear through customs.

In Russia, red foxes have been domesticated through careful breeding so they can be pets. The rules in Texas however will not allow even domesticated foxes to be kept as pets, so they were in trouble.

Apparently a man from Texas had purchased these 2 Russian Red’s and had them shipped to DFW. He was unaware of the rules and regulations for importing exotic animals/ wildlife into the state of Texas. These foxes had been purchased online and had the necessary paper work to be exported from Russia and shipped as cargo, but not by pet shipping experts who would have advised the man on local rules and regulations.

Since it is illegal to have a fox as a pet in Texas, they could not clear them through customs and were confiscated by the wildlife authorities. The airline contacted Airpets International and asked us to pick up and quarantine the Russian red foxes until they could figure out what to do with them.

The man who had purchased them would not spend the money to have them shipped back to Russia and suggested the foxes be euthanized. Our team of pet travel experts and pet care experts (including veterinarians from America’s Animal Clinic) could not bear for such magnificent creatures to suffer due to the ignorance of some people. So we got to work.

Meanwhile the foxes were having a grand time enjoying the great boarding and day camp facilities of our sister company Animal America. Since Mikhail and Nikolai were domesticated, they enjoyed their time with our pet care experts, they would play and run with gusto.

We spent many hours working on finding a place for them, we knew our options were limited as the only way to clear them would be if they were going to a zoo or some sort of wildlife reserve. Since the foxes were domesticated it would have been hard for them to adjust to living in the wild so the task was not easy. After almost a month we were able to get in touch with the Austin Zoo and they agreed to take them.  They still live there today and just had their birthdays celebrated in April.