Exporting Game Meat
 

Hi,

I am seeking advice on transporting wild game from Canada to the US via airplane. I am hosting my brother in law for elk hunting this season, and he is traveling up from the states (East Coast). If we are lucky enough to harvest an elk, how does one go about transporting some of meat out of the country?

1. I looked at the regulations, and there doesn't seem to be any export permits required, just that the hunter accompanies the package and has the valid licenses in hand. Anyone have experience with this?

2. In terms of the physical transportation- do you just freeze the meat and put it into big coolers? Assume it wont have any issue holding the temperature for ~20 hours of transportation.

All suggestions appreciated.

Thank you!

Never took meat south, only brought it north. Never had a problem bringing game of any kind back across the line.

I will tell you that frozen meat will not likely stay frozen for 20 hours in a cooler unless you put some dry ice in with it. We have taken to driving down to hunt because extra baggage now costs more than the meat is worth. At $150 per 70 pound bag it just doesn't makes sense to bring meat back by plane. When you add that to the fees for gun cases, and all the rest the cost of air travel to hunt has really jumped that last few years.

We use a small freezer in the back of the truck with a canopy on it. Plug it into the motel at night and it will stay frozen during the day unless it is really hot out. An inverter in the truck for use while running would solve that but to date never had a problem not using one.

PM Me your phone number and I will give you a call. New rules that make it a little more challenging

Do the new rules apply bringing meat north too? If so would appreciate a link to find the new rules. Thanks.

It looks as if it only is going south as you have to fill out paper work to get an importer number and it requires a social security number

I’m”pretty sure” you can’t use dry ice in a plane...something to check on though.
You could keep it on dry ice and dump the ice at the airport I guess.

You know something, best to check before you post if you don't actually know for sure. Some of us try to only post what we know for sure and have personally done. Not saying I have never been wrong g and things do change but I would not want to lead a guy wrong. We ship lobster by plane with dry ice pretty regularly.

https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...ted-items.html

It used to be dangerous goods, guess not anymore. Do you ship live lobster like that?

Problem is these days the rules change per the person that has the say.....
It's a coin toss most days with airlines and who is in charge of the situation

That is why it pays to have a copy of their own regulations with you or the link on your phone. Most people working have no real idea what the actual rules and regs are unless you can find that rare person that actually knows what they are talking about. That is why I never rely on the information counter staff give you, I always make sure I go over their websites in detail for the information I need. It is one of the great things about computers, you can now look it up yourself and not have to rely on poorly trained staff.

Calgary Chef - it is still considered a restricted material according to the airlines but they have rules about how much and what of it can be shipped. Yes, it is live lobster we are transporting using the dry ice.