Hollywood star Johnny Depp is in trouble after bringing his two pet dogs into Australia without declaring them to quarantine.

The Department of Agriculture is investigating after the discovery of two Yorkshire terriers – Boo and Pistol – believed to have been brought into Australia on Depp’s private plane last month so their owner could resume filming on the Gold Coast for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

• Johnny Depp is in town and apparently he’s single
• ‘Mortdecai’: the death of Johnny Depp’s career?

Depp flew back to America in March for surgery on an injured hand and returned in the past few weeks.

The department said any animal that was imported without meeting Australia’s import conditions would be ordered into quarantine and would either be exported or destroyed.

The department would make no comment on the individual circumstances of Depp’s dogs.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said the dogs could not stay.

“There is a process if you want to bring animals: you get the permits, they go into quarantine and then you can have them,” he said.

“But if we start letting movie stars even though they’ve been the sexiest man alive twice to come into our nation, then why don’t we just break the laws for everybody?

“It’s time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States.”

Earlier, on ABC 612 Brisbane, Mr Joyce said “if he doesn’t take Boo and Pistol back we do have to euthanase them.”

“Just because he’s Johnny Depp doesn’t make him exempt from Australian laws,” he said.

“The way this works is if we are going to make an excuse for Johnny Depp because he’s got a private jet and brought in his dogs than I suppose you have to start making exemptions and excuses for everybody.

“The reason you can walk through a park in Brisbane and not sort of have in the back of your mind – what happens if a rabid dog comes out and bites me or bites my kid – is because we’ve kept that disease out.

“I’ll tell you how close it is, it’s in Bali, it’s just next door, so this is not fanciful stuff and therefore we’re very diligent about what comes into our nation.”