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Shipping into Canada



This is off topic - at least it's not directly plant related, but perhaps
someone can give me some advice.

I'm trying to find a way (short of air-freight, airport to airport) to get
fish from Southern California to Toronto, Ontario. Early in June, I ordered
several trios of Japanese Grass Guppies from a chap in southern California.
He suggested that the quickest way to get them to me was via U.S. Mail -
Express Mail service. The package was shipped on June 7th, and showed up in
Canada on June 10th. Unfortunately for both me and the fish, the place they
showed up in is half a continent away - I found them at a Customs Clearance
Brokerage in Vancouver. Over the telephone, the broker told me that he had
reviewed the package about an hour before I spoke to him on the telephone
and the fish appeared to be O.K. The package was passed to Purolator later
that afternoon and overnighted to me here in Toronto. They were delivered to
my door by 11:00 a.m on the 11th. Four days in small plastic bags (4 oz. of
water per fish) had taken it's toll - only one female from each trio
survived the trip and there was a high "ammonia" smell to the water.

The surviving females did recover, but now I'd like to obtain more fish from
the same dealer. He suggested initially that Airborne Express would be a
more direct way to go but when he packaged up some fish last week to send
me, Airborne refused the package because they apparently no longer accept
"live animals" for International delivery.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Are there ANY courier companies which will
ship "live animals" from the U.S. to Canada? Is there any way to get the
U.S. Postal Service to realize the fact that Canada is a HUGE country and
that Vancouver, while it is only three hours by air from California, is over
a thousand miles from Toronto? Can a shipper request/direct the U.S. Postal
service to send the package to a border entry point that is closer to the
delivery point, rather than the one closest to the point of origin? Would
shipping in larger bags (with more water per fish) help the fish survive a
four day stay in the box?

James Purchase
Toronto