Update Concerning Petfinder Preventing Pet Updates
As you may have already heard, Petfinder stopped supporting FTP data file uploads of adoptable pets from RescueGroups.org in May, 2007.
More recently, Petfinder also asked us to stop updating pets via the Petfinder web site on behalf of our non-profit partners.
These actions mean that thousands of organizations won’t be able to use their RescueGroups.org service to update their Petfinder pet list and will have to do so manually, as an extra step.
The organizations that have requested an FTP account or import setup so they can upload their own data have been denied simply because of their affiliation with RescueGroups.org. Uploads are allowed from 19 other software vendors, and even from individuals, but not from RescueGroups.org or the non-profit animal welfare organizations that use our services.
Petfinder would lead you to believe that we can simply use their API (Advanced Programming Interface) to get your pets from them, instead of us uploading data to them. In reality, the restrictions of the API service, along with the technical limitations of the API make it unfeasible. Because the Terms of Service (TOS) of the API require the data to remain unchanged, and with Petfinder logos and advertisements, we would be unable to send the data to any of our pet adoption partners.
In addition, if organizations became dependent on Petfinder for their pet data and livelihood, what would happen to them if Petfinder decided to cut them off or started charging for the data? If they went out of business because they lost access to that pet data, it would hurt the animals even more. That’s why all of the major adoption listing web sites (except Petfinder) have chosen to work with RescueGroups.org, a non-profit organization that puts the animals first.
(UPDATE 9/28/09: The Petfinder API is not a viable option for delivering your adoptable pets to the adoption listing web sites because Petfinder requires “Powered by Petfinder” credit (at a minimum) on any site using their data. The adoption listing web sites that compete with Petfinder will not allow that credit to be shown on their site, therefore we would Not be able to send your pets to them. In addition, if an adoption listing web site wanted to use pet data from the Petfinder API they could do so themselves, without RescueGroups.org being in the middle.)
The answer is for Petfinder to accept FTP uploads for all of our partners, not just the 443 organizations that were setup before May, 2007. We’ve contacted Petfinder numerous times and offered to do anything reasonable so that we can upload data for you. We provide the tools necessary (like the Messaging Center) to communicate with the users of our services and we’re open to other solutions that allow us to upload data on your behalf.
However, Petfinder has stated clearly to us and our users that they are not willing to do business with RescueGroups.org and that accepting data from us to save more pets does not fit their business model.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. We’ve lost sleep on countless nights, and it’s very frustrating and disappointing to not be able to help you work more effectively in this way.
Our partners will have to update their pet list on both their RescueGroups.org service and directly on the Petfinder web site. We’re happy to provide new functionality in our services to make that process easier, like the HTML description popup, and the Manual Updates feature. Let us know if you need help understanding or using those new features.
Pets that you add to your RescueGroups.org service continue to appear on over two dozen web sites like Adopt a Pet, PETS911, DogTime.com and the Save a Dog Facebook application. We’re adding more sites every week with our own API and iframe capabilities, both of which do not include any advertisements or limitations.
Many of our export features aren’t available anywhere else, like animal locations, header/footer, as well as the Pet Adoption Toolkit and Pet Adoption Tracker. That’s above and beyond all of the extra fields, time saving templates, and security measures that make the Pet Adoption Portal, Data Management and Web Site services the fastest, easiest, and most secure place to put your pet information.
Stay tuned for several huge announcements concerning how your pets are getting even more exposure. We also will be announcing significant updates to our services, as well as new free and low-cost services we’ll be offering in the near future.
We thank you for your support and encouragement during this difficult time. We truly appreciate you and your mission.
This really hacks me off. It goes along with the phrase “To serve you better…” Whenever you see that, you know you’re about to get the short end of the stick.
To serve us better, Petfinder has cut us off from Rescuegroups and is requiring us to perform double data entry. I don’t have time for this. I spend all my time on my animals.
This is a horrible example of politics and red tape getting in the way of saving animals.
I’m still writing emails to Petfinder demanding an explanation of why they are cutting off Rescuegroups uploads. I would suggest that everyone out there to please email outreach@petfinder.com with your concerns.
it will do you no good , they will just ignore you. I have emailed and asked them for a copy of their policies and been told they don’t have ANY.
This is unbelievable. For far too long, Petfinder has been putting its money-making objectives ahead of our pets, but I’ve ignored that (and their dismal customer service) because my pets get so much exposure on their site. Lately, though, I’ve noticed my Adopt-a-Pet numbers are just as good (and they’re a nonprofit, too). I say we boycott Petfinder until they get their priorities straight. I have no time to post on multiple sites. I’m going to choose the portal for now.
What a blatant money-grab. They are attempting to increase their profit on the backs of rescuers and the dogs that so desperately need their help.
They are treating these dogs like a commodity – something only to make money from. In my mind, they are no better than the millers.
In fact, they are worse because they are pretending to care about the dogs when, in reality, all they care about is profit.
I have to state that I’m in agreement with the other comments posted here. I’m very disappointed in PetFinder and their stance on this matter. I think they have lost their focus and now fail to see the big picture, which is not about us, or adoption sites, or non-adoption sites, or API rights, or any list of things; it is simply about a desperate need to place so very many animals into good and loving and permanent homes. The extra steps now needed to update the Petfinder site manually steals time from shelter employees and volunteers, and time is valuable in shelters! If that time cannot be found, then we miss loading pets onto their site, which translates to less exposure. But I shall continue to fight the good fight alongside RescueGroups.org! (thank you guys for all you do!) and perhaps on some future day, on some far distant planet, Petfinder will see the wrong of their ways, and open their doors again. And perhaps due to this, and our being forced to find a way to work around them, we’ll all find we no longer need PetFinder! And won’t that be a Karma moment.
Petfinder’s management is a prime example of self-serving, self-centered arrogance. I remain hopeful that all rescues south of the Mason-Dixon Line boycott Petfinder permanently.
Like everyone else, I am absolutely stupefied by Petfinder’s decisions about this. I posted my response to their canned “no FTP for you” email in my own personal blogs. This has been met with outrage from people who aren’t even involved in rescue! I also find it odd that Petfinder is stressing all the exposure THEY bring us… isn’t it the other way around? No pet listings = no Petfinder. As things stand now, that wouldn’t be much of a shame. BTW, a better address than Outreach is the presidents: besty at petfinder dot com. I don’t honestly think it’ll change anything, but let at least waste a nice chunk of her time keeping it filled since she apparently endorses wasting ours.
What a shame that Petfinder is showing their greedy, money hungry face. There are so many ways they can make profit that won’t screw over non-profit organizations. We need to speak up and make our voices heard…let Petfinder know that just because we’re the “little guys”, we won’t tolerate this! I will be emailing outreach@petfinder.com and also forwarding the email address to everyone I know so they can write them as well.
I simply cannot believe the stupidity of PetFinder….they are trying to hold us to ransom because they know that they are (up to now) the major adoption site. They are greedy for the advertising revenue and for some reason seem to have taken exception to a genuine non-profit service that puts the animals before advertising revenue. Just at a time more and more rescues are using Rescuegroups, they cut them off. I am very tempted to stop using Petfinder and would support a boycott of their ‘service’… the Save a Pet Facebook app, and Adopt-a-Pet site are much friendlier. I haven’t updated our Petfinder account since this started and maybe if we all just let the animals slowly dwindle down, taking them off as they are placed, without adding any new ones, they’d eventually find they were losing popularity to the new sites (Petango is a new service that is investing a lot in raising it’s profile to compete with Petfinder, but I think they also may have common aims in having some financial gain in sight). I’m just angry and will continue to email Petfinder to try and get an answer I can understand about this fiasco.
By the way, Richard and the Rescuegroups family do a great job and have my support all the way. Rescuegroups wins and Petfinder loses in my book.
you won’t believe this,read the statement they are making about “pethealth’s” change in policy and how it forces allready overburdened groups to waste resources. when this is exactly what they are doing. http://www.petfinder.com/petpoint/index.html
i for one do not endorse a boycott of petfinder, a lot of animals will die without that exposure. however, hit them where it hurts,boycott all their advertisers. and then e-mail there advertisers and let them know you will not be spending money with them and why.
I guess I just don’t understand the “whys” of it all. What difference does it make if rescuegroups updates petfinder for me? All this does is make it so that I have less time to spend with my dogs, cleaning kennels, grooming, feeding etc. Why did this happen???? I would easily boycott petfinder, except that I do not want to hurt my dogs chances of being adopted.
I won’t be using Petfinder except to remove those dogs that get adopted. Eventually I won’t have to use them at all. Liza and Richard, thank you for all you do to help those of us that are NOT computer geeks, and are volunteers who spend all our time (spare and otherwise) working for the dogs we are trying to save!
Jacke Threatte
Secretary/Treasurer, Web updater (and foster mom!)
Chocolate Chip Dalmatian Assistance League
I personally find what Petfinder is doing is totally unrealistic. I have written them twice about my disapproval of how they are handling things with RescueGroups.org and have thus not received a reply. I hope other shelters who use RescueGroups will also email Petfinder about their disapproval and concerns. I for one, will continue to let them know how I feel about their limitations. I sent in my statement to Petfinder stating, so much for “Second Chances” as they have on their site and felt the pets were truly NOT their first priority!
Whilst we want to cont. w/ PF we are looking at NOT! They, since AP bought them out-have made the WRONG DECISION to now allow uplaoding from RESCUE GROUPS….With over 100 animals here I do NOT have time to do both!A BUNCH OF CRAP!
PF does NOT care to wk w/others? and that just does not benefit others!UNCLUDING THE PETS!! WAKE UP!!!
Petfinder was purchased by Discovery and frankly, there behavior smacks of anti-competitive behavior. I’ve filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission regarding this and I’m hoping they will follow through. This refusal to upload and create FTP accounts due to our relationship with Rescuegroups smacks of unfair trade practices.
This is all about control and politics- petfinder has lost sight of the real issue- IT SHOULD REALLY BE ALL ABOUT THE DOGS.
Animal Planet owns petfinder now, I wonder if the “powers to be” really know what is going on or they bought petfinder and left the original staff in control….
This is such a shame and hurts the people trying to help the homeless pets — therefore it hurts the pets too. All need to work together to help save the most pets. Petfinder is doing wrong and everyone should help spread this news.
This is wrong on SO many levels. All of us spend countless hours trying to save the lives of animals (and may I note that we should forget the CATS which make up the majority of our homeless animals) and now we get to spend even more just to do what we had been doing before. I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of boycotting the advertisers on Petfinder and asking all our friends to do the same thing. And how about boycotting Animal Planet? I worked in Corporate America in a previous life and this kind of behavior was the norm but somehow I expected groups involved in saving the lives of animals to operate at a higher standard. Silly me.
First, I want to thank RescueGroups for all the help they have tried to give us during this process.
I agree with all the dismay. I am glad to hear that others have emailed Petfinder and asked WHY??? I have only been involved with my local animal rescue group for about a year, but it didn’t take long to discover that not everyone puts the animal welfare mission at the top of the priority list. Politics, cliques, and power hunger are just as much in play as in any other “business”. I don’t blame PF for wanting to make a profit, I really don’t. I believe that every organization (not-for-profit or not) needs to make some amount of profit in order to keep things up and running. However, this really is a pretty blantant “power grab” and it’s the small rescue groups like us – who do an enormous amount of work on behalf of animals – that suffers.
I wonder how many groups this change affects? Has anyone heard?
We use Petfinder to host our webpage, calendar, etc. So boycotting PF would only cut our own noses off to spite their face! However, I will still keep emailing them until I get an answer.
I reminded them that we BRING traffic to them because even though our pets are posted on other sites, our website is with Petfinder and we use Petfinder tools all over the place on our website. So if anyone sees a pet on another site, if they go to our website, they can’t help but see “Petfinder” this and “Petfinder” that! It only expands their exposure! (Of course, I have yet to receive a reply back.)
Well, with all that said, I better get busy posting on two sites.
I have also e-mailed Petfinder and gotten a very disappointing response. I too will continue to e-mail until I get a satisfactory answer.
Last year I went to a seminar sponsored by Petfinder and Petco and Susan Green (outreach@petfinder.com) was adamant that Rescue Groups should keep the animals as first priority and support each other better. They obviously are not walking their talk.
We have always promoted petfinder.com when people ask about where to search for rescued animals. From here on out we will be promoting AdoptAPet.com
One last comment, the Petfinder upload tool is terribly inferior to RescueGroups….no HTML editor, no thumbnails of the animals, horrible!
Thanks to RescueGroups for making this transition away from Petfinder as easy as possible given the circumstances.
It all comes down to competing for limited resources, i.e. $$. I am sure they are afraid they will lose sponsors if rescue groups are not directly accessing their website and they may. Does it make it fair, no. Right, no. But we all know that as much as saving animals shouldn’t come down to $$ it does. Without it we can’t save them and without it they can’t exist. They may very well be competing for the same dollars from the same funders! Funders base their decisions on numbers, if we don’t access their site we don’t get counted and it matters.
Still stinks!
I am completely dumbfounded as to why Petfinder finds it necessary to punish us for wanting more exposure for the animals in need? I also simply do not understand the phrase in the canned email I received from them stating that our organization doesn’t need to use any other program because Petfinder gives us such great exposure. If they’re not careful they’re not going to have animals listed at all and where would that leave them? If it were left up to me we wouldn’t list with them at all anymore, especially since the numbers we’re showing through RescueGroups are darn near equal to Petfinder.
Absolutely amazing that red tape and politics are here in the rescue world now. Shame on you Petfinder.
Here’s what we are doing for right now…. We put a generic listing on PetFinder for each of the two breeds that we rescue saying we have many available and telling people to go to our website to see them. That’s all we’re putting on PetFinder now as they have made it too time consuming to get our pets listed there now. Perhaps if they start seeing other rescues doing this, they might just see the error in their decision. PetFinder is no longer the biggest source of potential adopters for our rescue anyway so that’s all they are going to get in the way of listings from us. I have to be honest, this only hurts the animals right now. But in the long run this was a very poor business decision for PetFinder. It will not be long before they are no longer a major website for adoptable animals to be listed. We’ve used PetFinder for many years to list our animals, and we’ve always been grateful for the service, but with their latest decision, the time has come to move on to other more effective ways to get our available animals seen.
Following is an email exchange between me and Petfinder. I encourage every other shelter owner out there to email Petfinder and voice their opinions as well. Our strength is in our numbers:
===============================================
Mr. Bilis,
I can only assume from you statement in the first paragraph that you have some disagreement with RescueGroups over whether or not they are a “legitimate animal management shelter software provider”. I naturally don’t know the details of this disagreement with them, but I did not ask you to set up an import account for RescueGroups…I simply asked you to set one up that accepts a csv data file. I am still requesting that you do that.
I completely and absolutely disagree with your assessment that you have a “better solution” for me, and especially for my pets. Your solution is pretty much confined to listing adoptable pets, which is fine because that is what PetFinder is intended for. It does not offer the web site integration tools that RescueGroups does, and it does not offer the centralized, online data management that RescueGroups does.
It may come as a suprise to you and your management, but most of the work a shelter does have VERY little to do with listing adoptable pets. They must be processed for intake, evaluated, vaccinated, some have special dietary needs, special medical needs, we must track how long they have been in the shelter, who we got them from, who they went to…the list goes on and on. This information must be tracked and reported on periodically. I am not aware of any capabilities of this nature available through your service.
Since you claim to have a “better solution” than what I currently have available through RescueGroups, I would like you to explain to me what you offer to help me manage my shelter. I believe the answer is “nothing”, and that is why cutting off RescueGroups is hurting shelters all over the country.
You suggest in your email that entering animals “one at a time” on PetFinder is somehow a great benefit to me. Can you please explain to me how having to double-enter data in two different systems is to my advantage?
My shelter is small. It is family-run and I work a full time job in addition to running the rescue. My and my family’s time is consumed with taking care of animals and trying to find them new homes. The time it takes to manually list them on your web site instead of simply using a subset of the data we have already entered on RescueGroups is time that I cannot spend working with the animals. It directly affects my ability to properly care for the animals that I am trying so hard to help, mostly out of my own pocket.
So I want to know what you propose I do.
You probably realize that your web site is very dependant on small shelters around the country. Yes, you offer a service for free and must cover your expenses, but your ad revenue would quickly dry up if most of the shelters that list with you decided it just wasn’t worth it. Perhaps you should consider offering a choice to small shelter owners that they can use your limited tools to manage their rescues one at a time for free (as it currently is), or they can pay an annnual fee to have their data automatically uploaded from RescueGroups. I am personally happy to pay RescueGroups for their service because they provide VALUE to me by allowing me to enter information once and manage it from anywhere. I would gladly pay you a fee as well for the value that those automatic uploads provides. But I am not willing to manaually every animal I have in my shelter because you decided not to allow a very good, very helpful tool to integrate with your site. I will instead remain with RescueGroups and discountinue use of Petfinder as soon as I feasibly can.
In summary, I think your management has made a serious mis-step with this ban on RescueGroups uploads. One thing about small shelters that you should realize is that we are very resourceful and we are very connected. You should acknowledge that we provide value to your organization and I think you will get a much better response by attempting to provide value to us, even at a nominal fee.
I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing your reply.
Sincerley,
Matthew M. Roberts
President, Dixie Adoptables
Hello,
We received your request to set up an import of your pets from RescueGroups. Our import system is set up to accept pet data and photos from legitimate animal management shelter software providers. We do not accept imported data from RescueGroups; however, we have a better solution for you and your pets.
Posting your pets directly into Petfinder will allow you to be sure that they are seen by the 5.2 million visitors we bring to see them each month, as well as by all the visitors to the other sites powered by Petfinder data. Because we want to help your pets get maximum exposure, we offer other websites the ability to access the Petfinder database for the purpose of promoting adoptable pets. We have offered this ability to the folks at RescueGroups, as well.
This means that you can post your pets one time – on Petfinder.com – and they (and you) can reap all these benefits:
• Over 5.2 million potential adopters visiting the Petfinder web site each month
• Millions more potential adopters through over 275 popular Web sites powered by Petfinder including AOL, Petco.com, Oodle, MySpace, ZooToo, and Kijiji.
• Automatic feed to any websites who display pets for adoption (including RescueGroups/Pet Adoption Portal, and thus any sites they may feed) through our API
• Eligibility for Petfinder.com Foundation programs and grants
• Eligibility for Petfinder.com contests, programs and initiatives (such as the ARS Shelter+ Challenge and the Maddie’s Fund Put Your Best Face Forward customer service contest)
• Media outreach and support resulting in over 37 million media impressions each year
• Inclusion in the Ad Council’s first-ever pet adoption campaign which will be powered by Petfinder pets
There is no other web site or adoption tool which promotes your pets the way Petfinder does. And we will continue to share your adoptable pet data with web sites featuring pet adoption to provide maximum exposure for your pets with the least amount of effort on your part.
Your Petfinder account is available for you to begin posting your pets, their pictures and video right now. Doing so is simple and we are here to help you and your pets in any way we can. You can get started right now by logging in with your ShelterID and password at http://www.petfinder.com/admin
Please let me know if you need any further assistance.
———–
Brent Bilis
Petfinder.com, Technical Support Representative
http://www.petfinder.com
Adopt a Homeless Pet!
From: ###@#########.org
To: help@petfinder.com
Date: 09/15/2009 09:46 AM
Subject: Data Export Request
Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by
(XXXXX@XXXXXXXXXXs.org) on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 09:46:03
—————————————————————————
name: XXXXXX XXXXXXX
shelterid: XXXXX
software: Excel
produceself: YES
notes: No questions at this time.
Submit: Submit
—————————————————————————
I wanted to share the letter I wrote and emailed to outreach, kim, and betsy at petfinder dot com. I copied our entire volunteer base and have posted it on Facebook and used Twitter to encourage our followers to contact Petfinder as well.
I included some comments from here, as well as some text from the blog entry above. I hope that no one minds my slight plagiarism; I just couldn’t think of a better way to say what you already had.
Thanks to all of you for what you do to help homeless animals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Ms. Saunders:
I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of Fancy Cats Rescue Team to inform you of our utter shock, disappointment at, and complete disapproval of the way Petfinder has chosen to cripple the rescue groups who are also posting adoptable animals on RescueGroups.org, rather than exclusively using Petfinder. We do not understand how disallowing us to import our pets from another portal comports with your mission “to use Internet technology and the resources it can generate to: (1) Increase public awareness of the availability of high-quality adoptable pets; and (2) Increase the overall effectiveness of pet adoption programs across North America to the extent that the euthanasia of adoptable pets is eliminated.”
In fact, it seems to us that this move is merely to benefit Petfinder’s bottom line and is in no way acting in the best interest of the animals for whom we (and, we thought, Petfinder) are trying to find homes.
We have requested an FTP account so we can upload our own data and have been denied simply because of our affiliation with RescueGroups. Uploads are allowed from 19 other software vendors, and even from individuals, but not from RescueGroups or, apparently, by us because we use their services. We were instead told, in so many words, that we should just be grateful for what Petfinder does for us.
Even if you would prefer that we enter our adoptable animals directly into Petfinder’s own site, why then will you not even permit RescueGroups to use your API to get our pets from Petfinder, instead of RescueGroups uploading data to Petfinder? In reality, the restrictions of the API service, along with the technical limitations of the API make it unfeasible for them to do so. Because the Terms of Service of the API require the data to remain unchanged, with Petfinder logos and advertisements attached, RescueGroups would be unable to send the data to any of their other pet adoption partners. Another impediment to the ability of rescue groups like Fancy Cats to showcase our adoptable pets!
According to RescueGroups, Petfinder has blatantly stated that it refuses to work with RescueGroups and that doing so does not fit Petfinder’s business model. That is a terrible shame — that Petfinder’s business model seemingly does not align with using all available resources for finding homes for rescued animals.
We are a volunteer-based organization, with only 1 paid staff member. The extra steps now required to update the two sites separately takes away from volunteer time that could otherwise be spent reviewing adoption applications, treating sick animals, or interviewing potential adopters, among MANY, MANY other important tasks. The fact that Petfinder has lost sight of how precious this time is to rescue organizations indicates that Petfinder’s management has become self-aggrandizing and arrogant.
We encourage Petfinder to reconsider its decision to exclude RescueGroups from uploading to or downloading from the Petfinder database. Work together with RescueGroups to achieve the highest possible visibility for our homeless, adoptable animals. If we are all working for the good of the animals we serve, that is the only right choice to be made.
Sincerely,
Danielle A. Denhardt
Member, Board of Directors
Fancy Cats Rescue Team
cc: Entire Fancy Cats Rescue Team
RescueGroups.org
–PLEASE CROSS POST–
I am so upset about Petfinder and their profit focus in what should be a business purely for the good of homeless animals. This did NOT just start with Animal Planet. Petfinder has been generating MILLIONS of dollars in PROFIT for years, and the founders sold it for over 30 MILLION DOLLARS and are still making money off it- People GOT RICH on the backs of our pet postings- that money belonged to US- the shelters and rescues who post the pets, but Petfinder made everyone think they were a charity. Yes, Petfinder helps get pets adopted, but their main goal is and has always been to make money. I’m sure the reason they won’t work with the Pet Adoption Portal any more is because the Portal exists for one reason alone– to help get the pets posted on as many sites as possible, and that means competition for Petfinder! Petfinder should be ashamed!
So PetPoint refuses to send their pets to Petfinder, because PetPoint wants to be paid money for the data and Petfinder says they are a free service. The Petfinder won’t accept the pet data from thousands of Adoption Portal shelters because they are trying to stop competition. Petfinder supports the The Animal Rescue Site where each click earns money for “homeless pets”, and guess where the money goes- TO PETFINDER!!! Yes, it’s true, and also to HSUS, the richest animal group in the world that doesn’t even run a shelter and to North Shore Animal League, one of the best funded shelters in the world. IT IS ALL ABOUT $$$$$. Why hasn’t anyone blown the whistle on these companies who value their profits over the lives of animals?
I will not post my pets on Petfinder and will stop using their web page as my home page, which is also makes them money. Let’s make Petfinder feel the heat.
–PLEASE CROSS POST–
Dear Vanessa – Regarding your post on September 23, 2009, please send it to CNN for publication across the USA and to expose the crap that Petfinder Board of Directors is trying to pull off. Also, it should be submitted to CNN iReports at http://www.cnn.com/ireport/
All of us have worked very very hard to save pets’ lives, and this is the thanks that Petfinder gives us. No way. Their tactics are going to be exposed fully, completely, and openly for what they really are — pure self-serving greed.
I find all this completely disheartening. I live a semi-rural southern town where reliable volunteer help can sometimes be few and far between. I am tech savvy and have been helping my local shelter for the past 3 or 4 years now at taking and uploading photos. Along, with that I also handle a major portion of their web presence- website, facebook, myspace, etc.
We just started using the Adoption Portal, I was so excited to see it would upload to so many sites including Petfinder, and then two days later I get the notification about Petfinder. I can not believe Petfinder would do such a thing, it is hypocritical because they “shamed” Petpoint for doing the same thing.
So now in addition to working full time M-F, 8am to 5pm, taking care of a husband a daughter, and 8 furry children (5 cats and 3 dogs), trying to get up to the shelter at least every other weekend, take photos of 100+ animals, come home edit them, NOW I will have to upload them to 3 different areas – Petpoint (our shelter uses it), Adoption Portal and Petfinder.
I just don’t see how I am going to do all this – it is Thursday I took photos last Sunday – I have them all in Pet Point, half on adoption portal, and none on Petfinder. By the time I get all this done an animal could be adopted (or worse because I couldn’t quickly get it the exposure it needed having all this time consumed) and it will be time for me to do my bi-weekly photo session again. I feel a bit like a hamster in a wheel sometimes, running and getting no where.
I think it is absolutely ridiculous that these companies will not work with each other for the better life of our animals. I am one person, middle class income, hardly enough time to think and I am doing all I can to help my local shelter, these companies have large sums of money, resources and power THEY SHOULD DO MORE – it is shameful and embarrassing.
thought I’d share my reply to outreach@:
I am confused as to why I received this response to my request. As you can see from my request form I did not indicate it was for use from Rescuegroups.org, I selected Microsoft Excel. Is Excel not a legitimate software in your companys opinion?
I also object to your suggestion that you have a better option for our group to simply update your site. Your site is not really user friendly as one must learn HTML in order to make pet listings appear to have been written by someone who made it past the third grade. Additionally pet updates made on your site took up to 24 hrs to appear to viewers when updates made through that illegitimate rescuegroups.org software somehow managed to update in less than an hour. Your site is merely a pet listing site and does not provide the options for the website integration with shelter records, your visitor tracking information is minimal and we do not have the audit trail/individual user accounts.
I thank you for reiterating all the wonderful benefits of Petfinders. Having been a member for over 6 yrs now, I was quite aware of them and wonder why you knew Petfinders was a better option for my group when you didn’t know I was well aware I had an account with you.
I will opt to continue using my illegitimate software for everything but your site. Of course, my over all opinion of Petfinders, Animal Planet and all your sponsors has now tanked to a new low with this decision. I do not appreciate the bullying tactics you have chosen to employ.
JoLynn
Indy Homes for Huskies, Inc
One Passion, One Goal
— On Fri, 9/18/09, help@petfinder.com wrote:
From: help@petfinder.com
Subject: Re: Data Export Request
To: xxxx@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, September 18, 2009, 4:07 PM
Hello,
We received your request to set up an import of your pets from RescueGroups. Our import system is set up to accept pet data and photos from legitimate animal management shelter software providers. We do not accept imported data from RescueGroups; however, we have a better solution for you and your pets.
Posting your pets directly into Petfinder will allow you to be sure that they are seen by the 5.2 million visitors we bring to see them each month, as well as by all the visitors to the other sites powered by Petfinder data. Because we want to help your pets get maximum exposure, we offer other websites the ability to access the Petfinder database for the purpose of promoting adoptable pets. We have offered this ability to the folks at RescueGroups, as well.
This means that you can post your pets one time – on Petfinder.com – and they (and you) can reap all these benefits:
• Over 5.2 million potential adopters visiting the Petfinder web site each month
• Millions more potential adopters through over 275 popular Web sites powered by Petfinder including AOL, Petco.com, Oodle, MySpace, ZooToo, and Kijiji.
• Automatic feed to any websites who display pets for adoption (including RescueGroups/Pet Adoption Portal, and thus any sites they may feed) through our API
• Eligibility for Petfinder.com Foundation programs and grants
• Eligibility for Petfinder.com contests, programs and initiatives (such as the ARS Shelter+ Challenge and the Maddie’s Fund Put Your Best Face Forward customer service contest)
• Media outreach and support resulting in over 37 million media impressions each year
• Inclusion in the Ad Council’s first-ever pet adoption campaign which will be powered by Petfinder pets
There is no other web site or adoption tool which promotes your pets the way Petfinder does. And we will continue to share your adoptable pet data with web sites featuring pet adoption to provide maximum exposure for your pets with the least amount of effort on your part.
Your Petfinder account is available for you to begin posting your pets, their pictures and video right now. Doing so is simple and we are here to help you and your pets in any way we can. You can get started right now by logging in with your ShelterID and password at http://www.petfinder.com/admin
Please let me know if you need any further assistance.
———–
Brent Bilis
Petfinder.com, Technical Support Representative
http://www.petfinder.com
Adopt a Homeless Pet!
From: xxxx@yahoo.com
To: help@petfinder.com
Date: 09/15/2009 07:11 AM
Subject: Data Export Request
——————————————————————————–
Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by
(xxxx@yahoo.com) on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 07:11:31
—————————————————————————
name: XXX
shelterid: XXX
software: Excel
notes: No questions at this time
Submit: Submit
—————————————————————————
Okay, I received the same string of emails from Petfinder as you all already posted, but I took it one step further.
I got my CSV file from RescueGroups and emailed it to Petfinder, with this email attached “I’ve compared my data file with your requirements and it appears its compatible! What a relief! I can’t wait to be back up on Petfinder. I don’t want us left out of the Shelter Pet Project just because I don’t have extra volunteer power to do double entries. Let me know what my next step is.”
From Petfinder.com IT staff:
Hello Kelly, [my name is Kerry]
The attached file is a Rescuegroups format import file. As we mentioned, we do not accept import data files from RescueGroups.
Unfortunately despite anything you may have been told by RescueGroups, having the FTP account will Not allow you to import the file Rescuegroups is providing. The file simply will Not be imported.
I am really sorry for the frustration that you and other Petfinder members are experiencing. We cannot understand how or why RescueGroups thought it was ok to mislead organizations into relying upon their service by telling them that they could automatically export their pets to Petfinder when they had been clearly advised that they could not.
We also do not understand why Rescue Groups would then inform you that you could import their data file via our import system. They have known since 2007 that this is not possible.
I know that had I been misled in this way, I would be very upset.
It is exactly issues like this which left us unable to continue a relationship with RescueGroups.
Despite their misleading behavior, we have offered RescueGroups (and all other websites) the ability to use the API which provides the solution. I have heard that RescueGroups is manufacturing reasons why they cannot use it, but the truth is that they can, as can ANY other website that wants to. Our “TOS” (terms of service) are standard and do mention not removing the Petfinder logo – but the reality is that there is NO LOGO, NO BRANDING in the data. And RescueGroups (and anyone else visiting the API) can CLEARLY see that. We have reached back out to RescueGroups to clarify for them that we are NOT asking them to include anything in the pet data but the pet data itself!
We hope that they will realize that after putting you in such a terrible position to begin with, that they can’t in good conscience not use the very tool that will allow you to post your pets ONE TIME and realize maximum benefit.
Petfinder Support
help@petfinder.com
My response on Tuesday, and I still haven’t heard anything from Petfinder.com:
“First off, my name is Kerry, not Kelly.
Why will the file not be imported? That’s what we’re trying to get help with. Its my data. I’ve extracted my data into the requested file format. Which software I’ve extracted from is irrelevant. Again, its my data, I own it. Its in the format required of Petfinder.com. Did I miss something? What specifically about the data file I sent doesn’t conform to your published criteria? Its in CSV format, the data matches your required data fields and their allowable values, and it’s a complete list. Is their info or formatting, etc. that needs to be changed, deleted, expanded in that file for it to be acceptable?
from your published criteria forimporting: “The Petfinder.com Pet Data Export allows member organizations to FTP a comma-separated value (CSV) file of their animal data and photographs to the Petfinder.com system for immediate inclusion in the live website, thus eliminating the need to hand-enter pet data. To participate, a member organization needs to produce a CSV file of their complete pet list and FTP it and their pet photos to a special account that we will set up for each member. CSV
files are the simplest data format and many database systems can produce them easily; We can also help set up a small program to query their database and produce this CSV file and FTP it to the Petfinder.com server.”
I believe I have met your criteria. How I’ve produced a CSV file of my complete pet list my CSV file is irrelevant… And YOU are missing that I am not using their PetPortal or website services, but rather I am using their animal data management services…shelter management software. I may use their other software systems/services in the future, but this is not a website service I am using. The Data Management Service is web-based for ease of use by dispersed volunteers, but it is not a website that is public for anyone to see. You have to have an admin assigned username and password to see any of our data. So much so that if you see our website, and could see our website throughout time, we’ve always used the Petfinder.com pet scroller. Its no different than us going back to olden days when we used an Access database before we had knowledge of Data Management Services. I still have the database and could feed you data based on exports from that database.
If I abandon RescueGroup’s Data Management Services entirely and simply use Excel as you website instructions allow (from your site: “You maintain your data in an excel-spreadsheet (whose native format is CSV), or you can get your pet data into an excel-spreadsheet.”), can I please batch upload to Petfinder.com via my ftp account? I am trying very hard to keep data, complete data in one spot, and simply give the relevant data to Petfinder.com. I need a central receptacle for all my data. I can have my board member’s husband set up a shared excel spreadsheet for our volunteers to use via the web.”
Haven’t heard a thing…I am going o take another poster’s advice and set up generic entries for the cats and direct them back to our website…or adoptapet.org or Pets911.com, that’d really get a crick up their crawl!!! Just kidding, I’ll send them to our website…
Kerry – You have caught Petfinder.com wrapped up in their own contradictions and red-hot lies. As soon as anyone complies with what they state is acceptable, then Petfinder changes its position. It is all about the bottom line and money, money, money and making sure that they have control over the databases that bring in advertising revenue for them and their fat-bellied board of self-serving directors. Their greed is obvious, and what is worse is their blatant act of making money off of the thousands of volunteers across the USA who post data for shelters and various rescue organizations. It has been off of our backs and our hard labor that Petfinder employees have made millions in advertising revenues. Their little empire would come to a screeching halt if everyone would simply pull ALL their listings and exclusively use Rescue Groups. Rescue Groups offers broad exposure and is a fine example of what animal rescue should be and is all about.
Yah I know, that’s why I posted the exchange.
In the beginning I was afraid I was missing something, like I wasn’t technically savvy enough to understand why we all weren’t delivering the required information.
It’d be pretty funny if it didn’t cost lives.
Can anyone answer the question of how many groups use the Pet Portal and Data Management Services through RescueGroups and how many pets are “available for adoption” through that system at any given time, on average?
I’m just wondering how much this is going to cost us to double entry…what’s it going to cost in additional volunteer hours, staff hours, etc.
[Please note: the post below is regarding the Petfinder foundation, not Petfinder itself, which is a for-profit company that is owned by Discovery Communications.]
They just rake it in:
PETFINDER COM FOUNDATION
EIN: 87-0694641
PO Box 16385
Elizabeth Saul
Tucson, AZ 85732
Telephone: (520) 321-1606
IRS Subsection: 501(c)(3) Public Charity
NTEE: D12 (Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution)
Assets: $1,883,765
Income: $1,026,571
Expenses: $143,005
Contributions $993,482
Government Grants $0
Program Services $0
Investments $33,089
Special Events $0
Sales $0
Other $0
Total Revenue: $1,026,571
[Note: This post has the same name and geographical location of a Petfinder help desk employee. We apologize if that is not in fact the case, but we felt you should know.]
Wow, what a bunch of fair weather friends. Years of service and dedication mean nothing if there is a situation at some point you deem imperfect?
Yes, the situation sucks, but I don’t understand why all of you are blaming Petfinder exclusively. Rescuegroups is the one who has been telling us for 2 years that they could import our pets into Petfinder when they were told by Petfinder 2 years ago they could not. I know that’s true cause I was caught up in it when it happened. How come no one is talking about attacking rescuegroups for lying about the features of their service just to get groups to sign up? How is it Petfinder’s fault that Rescuegroups told you you could do something when Petfinder said 2 years ago that you could not.
Sure it would be nice if they could get along, but making Rescuegroups seem like the good guys, and Petfinder the bad guys is absurd. How is this a money grab by Petfinder? Us upping our pets to them does not give them any more income? They were already getting all our pet data so that does not change. There are no ads in the members pet management section whose views would increase by us using it. So there is no way they make more money this way.
As for generating millions of dollars in profit for years before discovery bought them, that’s ridiculous, cough up the proof. From what I have seen over the years of working with them is that their ‘profit’ goes into upgrading services, adding staff, running adoption options, funding the Petfinder foundation that gives millions of dollars in grants to members, and organizing a ton of other programs to get money and supplies to organizations that need it. I have seen first hand the difference their disaster relief efforts make. Not seen rescuegroups do any of that.
Yeah the founders sold PF for a huge sum, but yet they both continue to work for PF as normal employees of Discovery. If they have all this money you claim and still work there, there must be some loyalty to the pets on their part, or they’d be sitting on a beach somewhere full time. But even if they don’t have any loyalty, anyone that has worked with Petfinder knows the employees care for nothing but the pets and have always worked their tails off to help us.
As for Kerry proving anyone is lying, its herself. She states that Petfinder told her they would not import a file from Rescuegroups. Then she lied to them saying she made a file herself, and sent them a file she got from RG. PF then did not import it just as they said they wouldn’t. Only one that lied in that situation is Kerry. Open your eyes people, get off your high horses, stop believeing people just cause they yell loudest, stop just following the mob mentality cause its easiest, and learn the truth about whats happening around you.
You all may not be able to see the big picture from your single organizations point of view, but Petfinder has proven time and again, that they will do what they believe is Best for the Animals over and over again, even if its not the popular action, even if it costs them money. You do what you believe is best for your organization, they do what they believe is best for the whole of the pets from the 15,000 organizations that post to them. They can’t allow the 600 organizations or so effected by this (based on RG statements) to make the decisions. Especially not when they have offered RG a perfectly viable solution. Certainly Not saying everything they do is right, but to attack them so maliciously, calling them corrupt, after all the years of doing so much good when you clearly have not bothered to learn all the facts is unconscionable.
To say that they are not interested in working with and are Now refusing to work with RG because they do not want to help get the pets posted on as many sites as possible due to competition just shows ignorance of the facts. Stop mouthing off without knowing the facts:
Petfinder did not ‘Just’ stop working with Rescuegroups, they told RG 2 years ago they could not import to PF. The fact that RG found a way to sneak into the system rather working around PF rather than work with PF just proves how dishonest they are.
RG was dishonest with a lot of groups to get them to sign up for the past 2 years, by telling them that they could export to PF even after RG was told they could not.
Petfinder is not saying that it refuses to work with RescueGroups because it does not fit Petfinder’s business model. They have said it is due to Rescuegroups history of feeding organizations misinformation and other such self-serving behavior that detriments the organizations.
Most important in all this is that:
Petfinder offers all their pet data to ANY website that wants it at any time. Including Rescuegroups.
They even will allow RG to in turn pass the data on to the sites they want to export to. So our pets would be on all the sites. Thats certainly not the action of an anti-competitive organization. They will freely give their data to their competitors.
Rescuegroups is still misinforming groups by saying this won’t work. Well it does work, Tons of Major sites (like AOL and Petco) use it to put PF data on their own site, and even I use it to put our pet data on our independent website. And there are none of the logos RG is claiming are an issue in the data.
So yeah, they should all get along for the sake of the pets, but its hardly a one bad guy situation. Rescuegroups has been dishonest and sneaky. Petfinder may be being hard headed about RG, but they announced 2 years ago they would not take data from RG, and have been upfront about that situation. Hardly a situation where PF is the bad guy and rescuegroups is squeaky clean.
Make your own decisions, but at least learn the facts rather than just mouthing off and spreading misinformation. Doing so just riles everyone up about things that aren’t true and thus slows the process of finding a solution.
[Note: This post has the same name and geographical location of a Petfinder help desk employee. We apologize if that is not in fact the case, but we felt you should know.]
<< From what I have seen over the years of working with them is that their ‘profit’ goes into upgrading services, adding staff, running adoption options, funding the Petfinder foundation that gives millions of dollars in grants to members, and organizing a ton of other programs to get money and supplies to organizations that need it. >>
You know, I hear time and time again how PetFinder says they donate “millions of dollars” in grants to rescue groups … Has any rescue group here ever seen one cent of this supposed “millions of dollars”
they hand out? We sure haven’t.
<< anyone that has worked with Petfinder knows the employees care for nothing but the pets and have always worked their tails off to help us. >>
Anyone that has worked with PetFinder “customer support” knows they can’t even be bothered to reply to your emails most of the time, and when you do get a reply it’s some canned copy-paste thing that usually
isn’t even relevant to your problem.
<< RG was dishonest with a lot of groups to get them to sign up for the past 2 years, by telling them that they could export to PF even after RG was told they could not. >>
You ASSume way too much – what makes you think we signed up with RG because of the ability to import to Petfinder?
RescueGroups is shelter management – PetFinder is *only* a listing site. Make me choose between the two and it’s a no brainer – PetFinder loses.
<< Make your own decisions, but at least learn the facts >>
Oh, but we ARE making an informed decision.
Excuse me? Does that really say they took in over $1 million and only spent $143,000? That’s a typo, right? If not, we all deserve some answers. Those donations are meant for animal shelters. Why are we not seeing that money?
I’m sure I’m just reading it wrong, right? I just can’t believe my eyes. Last year, my rescue took in about 15k and spent over 25k.
I think this is the guy who needs to hear from everyone…he is the CEO of Discovery Communications LLC (parent company of PetFinder) and he scrapes by on a measly $5.5 Million per year.
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=612978
I am NOT a Petfinder employee.
There is no end to your willingness to mis-inform people for your own self-serving ends, huh? Things that bad that you have to take petty shots at Petfinder like that?
I have been using Petfinder for years, have met much of the staff at conferences and events, and have been in contact with them regarding this situation, but I am NOT employed by them.
Thanks for proving my point about being dishonest and sneaky.
We all know how valuable Petfinder itself is (or has been in the past) in exposure for adoptable pets. It frightens me that I may not have the time to put our pets up on their site manually any more. But that is the situation we are in. We use PetPoint for our database management, and started that before we found out about RG. So, they used to upload to Petfinder. Great. Then they didn’t, and I could honestly blame PetPoint as it was obvious that they wanted to attract the advertising dollars by having traffic go to their own public website instead of to Petfinder. I believe the ShelterCare insurance feature had already been withdrawn from Petfinder pages, so I knew something was up at that point.
Then, Rescuegroups comes along. What a lifesaver. A simple to use website instead of the sadly out of date amateur website we’d had to use up to now. Easy to set up and maintain. Offering uploads to all the adoption sites. Perfect. The carrot of Petfinder uploads wasn’t what attracted us. At that time, Petpoint was still uploading to Petfinder so we didn’t switch, and keeping the two databases up to date was just about manageable. Then Petpoint stops uploading to Petfinder. We switch to allow RG to upload to Petfinder. Still all is well and I only have two sites to manage.
Yes, I didn’t know that PF had already told RG that they wouldn’t accept the uploads. It wouldn’t have been a dealbreaker at that time as Petpoint still uploaded. I don’t feel that I was misled at all. RG have always been NOTHING BUT EXCELLENT in their customer service and assistance with every question, no matter how trivial.
All I know is that Rescuegroups provides me (and hundreds of other rescues and shelters) a wonderful service, with none of the politics that apparently goes with Petfinder policies. None of what Pet Rescue Ink is saying explains to me why Petfinder won’t accept uploads from Rescuegroups on behalf of it’s users. It’s obviously a personal difference between the organizations or there wouldn’t be such a determined effort by Petfinder to refuse to work with RG. Why do they accept uploads from other services? What is the difference? What exactly do they object to in the way RG does business? I DON’T want to have a petfinder page for my website visitors. I don’t want to be forced to use their tools. I want my RG format. I don’t care what the posts look like when they are on the adoption sites – Petfinder, Adopt-a-Pet etc., but on my website I want my RG format. So, Petfinder think we should do this the other way around. Post our animals to them and import them back to our websites? And they’ll post them to all the other sites for us? Someone explain to me how Petfinder being like this is helpful to me and our rescue?
I’m still appalled by Petfinder. And I still am impressed by RG.
Okay, a few days ago I spoke with Kim Saunders, VP of Shelter Outreach.
Basically, the two links discussing uploads/exports and all that talk by Brent in the IT department is out of date, obsolete, and inaccurate.
They should not be on the website and the Petfinder.com IT staff should not have referenced them in their email replies to us. They will NO longer update petfinder.com through FTP accounts at all unless it through one of the
partnering shelter management software companies, so no making an Excel file period and trying to have it uploaded. So supposedly, no new groups will be allowed to batch upload themselves, regardless of what system they use, if anything.
I did find out that they are in the development phase of making Petfinder.com a Shelter Management Software, which will be web-based, of course, and free. This is based on feedback from their members. They are aware of Maddie’s Fund, Asilomar Accords, and will work these needed reporting features into the web-based solution. I asked for an estimated launch date and she didn’t know one, but it is in the pipeline…(insert ominous music here—all kinds of scenarios are looming over us, will all uploads from Chameleon, RescueConnection, etc be eliminated? What will they do with the data? Will they own it and sell it to their partnering insurance company? will the Foundation use the adopter’s list to fundraise from?).
Apparently, Petfinder.com organized Michigan Humane Society to not batch upload their pets to Petfinder, but rather they have trained a whole slew of volunteers that do nothing but manually enter the animals into Petfinder. They want to move groups to this instead because they find that when groups rely on batch uploads from shelter management software they find the data incomplete, innacurate and results in fewer adoptions.
Well, I think the issue is dead in the water and there is no one that’s going to fix it for us, 3rd party-wise. I am sticking with RescueGroups and I took the suggestion of others and just put a generic Petfinder.com posting for our cats and kittens and put a hyperlink in those posting linking them to our website, which uses the Toolkit. I’ve spent enough time on this. http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=14721117
RG is the ONLY data management software that allows me to log feral colonies, the cats in those colonies, caretakers, etc.and then track which ones are TNR’ed, and which ones are available for adoption/adopted. Not even Neighborhood Cats’ software does that!!!
I find it interesting that Petfinder now claims that all their IT personnel and their own website postings are incorrect, and apparently they are not sending a correct automated response; In fact, using the word “legitimate” is an inflammatory word to use as it has the implication that RG is illegitimate, and that is quite the accusation to make.
Either they are completely incompetent, or unscrupulous. But certainly they are not making rescues’ lives any easier. Yes, of course PF has made many adoptions possible, but that will only carry you for so long.
I commend ShelbyPets’ solution, quick and easy. Thanks for investigating the issue.
Wow, did you all get that email from petfinder? Boy, I think they’ve really lost it. FYI, I check the API that they claim is “the solution” and it’s not. It only allows you to get information, and limited amounts of it at that. The API does not allow posting, updating or deleting information. So you’d have to use PF’s decrepit manual posting. Who care if you get do an HTTP get. I wouldn’t even want their data, not worth it.
Nope, best thing is just to leave PF altogether. Very disappointing to see an organization go off the rails like that. And so childish doing all this finger pointing. Yuk is all I have to say. Here’s the email I received:
The Facts About Petfinder and RescueGroups
Monday, September 28, 2009 5:47:57 PM
From:
“outreach@petfinder.com”
Dear Petfinder.com members,
We know that many of you received an unsolicited email from a Petfinder member frustrated with RescueGroups. We are sorry for your wasted time but do appreciate the notes of support so many of you included when forwarding the mail on to us. As you know, Petfinder was founded 14 years ago to help you in the life-saving work that you do. We continue with that same mission today – and continue to bring the most adopters to view your pets – free of charge to you and to them. We are proud to partner with you and to have helped you find homes for over 14 million pets over the years.
While much of the information in the email you received is inaccurate, we do not believe that this was intentional. Rather, it seems likely that the writer is simply repeating inaccurate and misleading information with which he was provided without investigating the facts. For those of you for whom this is completely irrelevant, I hope that you will delete that email and this one – and get back to doing what you do best: saving lives!
We have spoken directly with many of you who have been impacted and you know how frustrated we are that you have been placed in this position. We have provided a viable solution to RescueGroups by offering them our API – giving them access to your pet data (without logos or advertisements) – at no charge. We will continue to pursue other avenues to try to help you out of the situation in which you have been placed.
Meanwhile, we would like to share the facts surrounding some of the misinformation provided:
1 – MISSTATEMENT: Starting a few weeks ago, [Petfinder] quit allowing RescueGroups to update pet information automatically.
TRUTH: RescueGroups has not been authorized to import data to Petfinder since May 2007. Despite this fact, organizations have told us (and shown us screenshots) that they chose to use RescueGroups because they claimed to have such an import.
2 – MISSTATEMENT: When people have asked why they are doing this, Petfinder has stated only that automatic updates from RescueGroups does not fit their current business model as a reason for suddenly blocking them.
TRUTH: While we partner with and have very good working relationships with 19 shelter management providers, we were unable to maintain a relationship with RescueGroups. We see no benefit to engage in mud-slinging; instead, we rely upon you to recognize that the Petfinder business model has always been and still is to do what is best for adoptable pets – and to continue to bring the maximum potential adopters to view them.
3 – MISSTATEMENT: PetFinder does not offer a valid alternative. They simply expect us to submit animals one at a time manually, or do not submit them.
TRUTH: We have offered RescueGroups the ability to use our API which provides the solution. RescueGroups may opt not to avail themselves of this option, but the truth is that they can. While our TOS (terms of service) are standard and do mention not removing the Petfinder logo, the reality is that there are NO logos and NO advertising in the data. And RescueGroups (and anyone else visiting the API) can CLEARLY see that. We took the extra step of contacting RescueGroups to clarify for them that we are NOT asking them to include anything in the pet data but the pet data itself! This would allow you to enter your pets into Petfinder, reap the benefits of doing so AND have that data sent over to RescueGroups who can further distribute it. Just pet data – in the hopes that more potential adopters will find your pets.
Finally, while the email sent makes reference to immature and unprofessional behavior, it then encourages all groups, whether impacted by RescueGroups actions or not, to engage in a time-consuming email or calling campaign. We would suggest that this is not the best use of time as far as pets are concerned. Petfinder makes decisions based on what is best for adoptable pets – and not based on sheer number of calls/emails received. However, we do feel strongly about responding to all communication, and if we are spending our time responding to communication generated by this email, it will slow down our ability to assist members in meaningful ways with their accounts and their pets.
If we can help you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us. And please remember that we have the utmost respect for you and for the tireless efforts you put forth to help the animals.
-The Petfinder Outreach Team
I agree with boycotting Petfinder; however, I read an even better idea on a rescue group on Yahoo. The writer suggested putting a single posting on Petfinder (or one cat and one dog if you rescue both) and then in the description, direct everyone to your website (if you have one) or one of the other adoption sites (if you don’t). I think this would make an even stronger statement to Petfinder than a strict boycott.
I would like to address the TRUTHs that were sent out with the Petfinder email today individually. I really don’t think they stand up to careful analysis:
1. TRUTH: RescueGroups has not been authorized to import data to Petfinder since May 2007. Despite this fact, organizations have told us (and shown us screenshots) that they chose to use RescueGroups because they claimed to have such an import.
>This is TRUTH only on a technicality. They say that they told RG two years ago that they could not import data to Petfinder (actually, the correct term is “export”…only Petfinder could import into Petfinder), The original email did not say that they TOLD RG this a few weeks ago, only that they QUIT ALLOWING it. This is actually a true statement, because until a few weeks ago, I could export from my RG account and it would show up in Petfinder. So despite what they may have told RG about exports, the truth is that they just recently QUIT ALLOWING them to.
2. TRUTH: While we partner with and have very good working relationships with 19 shelter management providers, we were unable to maintain a relationship with RescueGroups. We see no benefit to engage in mud-slinging; instead, we rely upon you to recognize that the Petfinder business model has always been and still is to do what is best for adoptable pets – and to continue to bring the maximum potential adopters to view them.
>This is, again, technically true, but does not make the email’s statement false. RG reported that Petfinder stated that RG did not fit in their business model. This may or may not be true, but that does not change the fact that by limiting uploads, they are NOT “continuing to bring maximum potential adopters to view” the pets. In reality, it severely limits larger shelters’ ability to maintain Petfinder data and needlessly forces them to post via the Petfinder manual entry forms. This may be a viable option for rescues with ten of fifteen pets, but for those with 50+ animals with limited volunteer staff, it is not feasible. This means that some animals that would have otherwise gotten exposure on Petfinder will not.
TRUTH: We have offered RescueGroups the ability to use our API which provides the solution. RescueGroups may opt not to avail themselves of this option, but the truth is that they can. While our TOS (terms of service) are standard and do mention not removing the Petfinder logo, the reality is that there are NO logos and NO advertising in the data. And RescueGroups (and anyone else visiting the API) can CLEARLY see that. We took the extra step of contacting RescueGroups to clarify for them that we are NOT asking them to include anything in the pet data but the pet data itself! This would allow you to enter your pets into Petfinder, reap the benefits of doing so AND have that data sent over to RescueGroups who can further distribute it. Just pet data – in the hopes that more potential adopters will find your pets.
> This one is pure slight of hand. Petfinder does indeed offer an API that could be used by RescueGroups…but ONLY to retrieve Petfinder data, not the other way around. This means that we would have to enter our pet information into Petfinder’s far inferior tools and then export it to RescueGroups. This makes most of the workflow and data management tools built into RescueGroups unusable. So this is NOT a valid alternative they have offered. The way they phrase it, you would think that all RescueGroups has to do is “use Petfinder’s API” and everything will be rainbows and butterflies, but in reality that is not the case. It still forces us to use two tools where we previously only had to use one, and it still requires us to spend massive amounts of time manually entering data into Petfinder.
One more thing that I would like to point out is that the original email they they responded to had a lot more information than the three points that Petfinder chose to cherry-pick for their response email to everyone. I challenge them to answer on a point-by-point basis if they truly are doing this for the right reasons.
Those points are that they chose to ignore to make the original email sound bad are:
* As far as I know, Petfinder (and their parent company Discovery Communications, LLC owner of Discover Channel, Animal Planet, etc.) have not stated any other reasons for rejecting updates from RescueGroups.
* They do not have any shelter management tools available that would make manually submitting them worthwhile or any better.
* On their About Us page (http://www.petfinder.com/info.html), Petfinder states: Our mission – To use Internet technology and the resources it can generate to: 1. Increase public awareness of the availability of high-quality adoptable pets. 2. Increase the overall effectiveness of pet adoption programs across North
America to the extent that the euthanasia of adoptable pets is eliminated. Yet they have made a conscious decision to limit the use of available Internet technology by the very people who run the shelters that manage these adoptable pets.
* My opinion of Petfinder is that they are a very good resource for shelters and most of us owe a lot of our success to their free service. But when they arbitrarily make a policy change without considering the impact it has, it causes large problems for hundreds or thousands of rescues. I want them to understand the full impact of their decision.
* Alone, we will probably not be able to force these two very good, very valuable organizations to resolve their differences and work out an arrangement that will once again help those that are helping the animals. But if all of our voices are heard, neither company will be able to ignore the problem. Our strength is in our numbers. Without us, neither would exist.
When the full list of points is presented, it doesn’t look to me like the email is trying to smear Petfinder, make them look bad, turn them into the bad guy, or imply that they are intentionally hurting people. It simply makes the case that this impasse between the two organizations is hurting a lot of rescues needlessly and that they should figure out a way to get past it for the benefit of everyone involved, most importantly the pets.
A very sad state of affairs in the homeless pet community all over the USA. Unfortunately, PetFinder is a monopoly controlling all of us who need them and the exposure we get from their website to save the lives of our homeless pets. I started my own organization over 5 years ago to escape the politics and ego trips and now here it all starts again. As if times are not hard enough with the state of the economy and now they hit us while we are down.
I too will be putting up a generic posting directing adopters to our website. KUDOS to Richard and Rescue Groups for the service they provide to us. I stand behind RG 100%.
What a shame! What a shame that we get caught up in this fight. The end result is that I’ll have to update petfinder manually….why can’t petfinder work out a solution with rescuegroups???? We are the ones who suffer because we are the ones who does the work……
It is very interesting to note that we are all getting the same canned responses. None of which answer any direct questions or concerns. We have also contacted Petfinder on several occasions as well as contacting a representative of the Maddies Foundation who is on the Shelter Pet Project. Basically we were told that Petfinder will not budge on the issue. While I’m assuming that is correct, it will not stop us from continuing to make our displeasure of Petfinder known. As such, we have written the following letter to send to all the relevant parties. In order to ensure it doesn’t get chopped or misquoted, we have a copy on our website if anyone is interested in reading it. http://tinyurl.com/y9k8ym3
The following is an exhange I have had with Petfinder.com via there “Outreach” personnel. I will post the referenced “letter of denial” and my response, in a following entry.
_______________________________
Subject: Re: The Facts About Petfinder and RescueGroups [CO153]
From: “Carl @ ERU”
Date: Wed, September 30, 2009 14:23
To: outreach@petfinder.com
Dear Susan Greene and Suzan Shaw:
I have seen a lot of name calling and some other absurd ideas being suggested by others in the rescue community. However, while participating my provide some venting of my frustration, I will attempt to confine my comments to business tempered by my 35 years as an Information Technology Manager.
In responce to a request for FTP accounts so that we could persue any and all (though highly impractical) alternatives to RescueGroups for managing our Petfinder accounts, we received a very detailed “letter of refusal/denial” from your Joe Cabanilla, Petfinder.com, Technical Support
Representative. Attached is a file containing his leter of denial and my response.
Petfinder is a wonderful organization that provides an immence amount of service for good. Unfortunately, in my opinion based on 35 years in business, Petfinder’s business paradigm is archic, designed around servicing small, brick & mortar, single location rescue organizations.
RescueGroups is also a non-profit organization supporting the animal rescue community and providing an immence amount of service for good. Their focus is on the back-office support of organizations such as ours, Eskie Rescuers United American Eskimo Dog Rescue, Inc. While they do
charge a nominal fee for their services, it is significantly lower than it would cost ERU for web site hosting and data storage via a commercial service. In addition, the value they add would cost us $1000′s if not
$100,000′s of dollars to develop on our own.
Frankly, all three of our organzation should have one focus and one focus only – doing what is best for the animals. I have a very difficlult time trying to understand how shutting down RescueGroups upload service benefits Petfinder or how allowing it harms Petfinder. However, as you will see when you read my response to Joe, your actions are going a long way toward pushing ERU out of business as we do not see any pracical solution to mesh our structure with Petfinder’s demands, and, we concede that Petfinder provides a huge amount of the exposure needed to get our dogs adopted.
Sincerely,
Carl Sapelli
Chief Technical Officer
Eskie Rescuers United American Eskimo Dog Rescue, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) Non-profit Organization
_______________________________
On Mon, September 28, 2009 17:03, outreach@petfinder.com wrote:
Hi Carl,
Thank you for writing. Petfinder’s business model is designed around helping your pets find homes. I do hope that you will consider staying with Petfinder as we offer more than any other pet adoption service – for FREE!
* Over 5.2 million potential adopters visiting the
Petfinder web site each month
* Millions more potential adopters through over 275
popular Web sites powered by Petfinder including AOL,
Petco.com, Oodle, MySpace, ZooToo, and Kijiji.
* Automatic feed to any websites who display pets for
adoption (including RescueGroups/Pet Adoption Portal,
and thus any sites they may feed) through our API.
* Eligibility for Petfinder.com Foundation programs and
grants.
* Eligibility for Petfinder.com contests, programs and
initiatives (such as the ARS Shelter+ Challenge and the
Maddie’s Fund Put Your Best Face Forward customer
service contest.)
* Media outreach and support resulting in over 37 million
media impressions each year.
* Inclusion in the Ad Council’s first-ever pet adoption
campaign which will be powered by Petfinder pets
Susan Greene and Suzan Shaw
Shelter Outreach
http://www.Petfinder.com
Adopt A Homeless Pet!
_______________________________
“Carl @ ERU”
09/28/2009 04:59 PM
Please respond to
carl@eskierescuers.org
To: outreach@petfinder.com
cc: carl@eskierescuers.org
Subject: Re: The Facts About Petfinder and RescueGroups [CO153]
Dear Petfinder:
While we have not received the email you mention, we do believe that all you say is true. Sadly, it is not a solution for our organization.
There is no benefit to Eskie Rescuers United to enter data manually (or other wise) into Petfinder’s database and then pull it into RescueGroup’s database. We just have too many people in too many places for this to be practical. Then, from there, push it to the many other adoption sites.
It is our desire to record our data in a single database and push that data to all the great sites, like Petfinder.com, that can help us do our job of rehoming adoptable American Eskimo Dogs. Unfortunately for us,
it seems, we find RescueGroups to be the best provider of such a service and that does not fit Petfinder.com’s business model.
Sincerely,
Carl Sapelli
Chief Technical Officer
Eskie Rescuers United American Eskimo Dog Rescue Inc
(A 501(c)(3) Non-profit Org)
In response to the above, I received the following from Petfinder. Obviously, they missed my point.
_________________________________________
Subject: Re: The Facts About Petfinder and RescueGroups [WA216]
From: outreach@petfinder.com
Date: Wed, September 30, 2009 16:09
Hi Carl,
Thank you for writing. I am sorry that you find the Petfinder system to be cumbersome. We will be making some big changes to the administration system on Petfinder in the near future to address these issues and more. We do take member input seriously and past ideas from our members have shaped these changes. Making changes to the administration system of Petfinder is a huge undertaking that will affect all our members as well as how the public searches for me. To that end, we are working carefully to make sure all the pieces are in place before opening it up for member testing. Petfinder has worked hard to become the only household name in online pet adoption websites. That hard work has resulted in 14 million adoptions across North America in the past 14 years. We currently have about 5.2 million visitors coming to Petfinder each month and we would love for your pets to have the chance of being seen by them.
- S
Note the wording Petfinder chose to use in its reply to Carl: “Petfinder has worked hard to become THE ONLY (emphasis mine) household name in online pet adoption websites. Not “the leading” or “the premier” but the ONLY. As in, knock the competition out of the running.
See below PF’s reply to me after I emailed them regarding my disapproval of their recent actions regarding Rescue Groups.
Hi Barb,
Thank you for your email. I want to assure you that the termination of the regular upload with RescueGroups in 2007 was not a decision that was made lightly. We would never suggest doubling your workload. You can still enter your animal data only once – at Petfinder. Your animal’s data will then be readily available for RescueGroups and any other website to access and use on their site for FREE. So when your pets are entered into the Petfinder system, they are available on all the sites Petfinder sends data to, and Rescuegroups can access the data and still send it to the sites they export to, as well.
We offer a very common data interface for accessing the data, ensuring anyone that wants to add pets to their site can access your pets data, anytime. In fact , we want your pet data Everywhere.So while we work every day to find more ways and places to get your pet data out to the masses, if you know of any websites out there that you think should have adoptable pet listings on their pages, please contact them and send them this link. With it they can access the pet data for free.
http://www.petfinder.com/developers/api-key
- S
Please include this correspondence with your reply
**********************************
Susan Greene and Suzan Shaw
Shelter Outreach
http://www.Petfinder.com
Adopt A Homeless Pet!
**********************************
Today’s Pet Stats Email from PF. Lets pour it on again.
Dear Petfinder.com members,
The Petfinder.com Foundation has given out over $1.8 Million in 2009 to Petfinder members!
The Petfinder.com Foundation is the 501c3 non-profit, public charity created solely to support Petfinder members like you. Petfinder was deliberately NOT created as a non-profit organization, choosing not to compete with the shelters and rescue groups for grant dollars, and instead focusing on leveraging the corporate dollars we knew we could tap into for your pets. This approach made Petfinder the No. 1 pet Web site – and the place for adopters to find your pets. We continue to be honored to work with you these past 14 years and to assist you in placing over 13 million pets into fur-ever homes.
Given the incredible number of visitors coming to Petfinder each month, we felt an obligation to allow them to assist you financially through the Web site, particularly in times of disaster – and the Petfinder.com Foundation was created. From the 2004 wildfires in California to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma; windstorms in the Pacific Northwest to tornadoes in Florida, the Petfinder.com Foundation has distributed cash grants of over $675,000 to help local Petfinder members repair their facilities, care for displaced pets and reunite lost pets with their families. Our Foundation helps homeless pets by saving lives through adoption programs, helping shelters prepare for and recover from disaster and working to make shelters across the country more sustainable.
Here are some of the awards the Petfinder.com Foundation made to Petfinder members so far just THIS year:
Disaster Preparedness grants – $850,000+
Disaster Relief grants – $26,000+
IFAW Partnership (disaster response expense) – $70,000+
ARS Shelter+ Challenge (spring) – $100,000
Spay/Neuter grants – $23,000
Vaccination grants – $194,000+
Hide, Perch and Go pilot program grants – $300,000
Sponsor-A-Pet donations – $80,000
Put Your Best Face Forward (with Maddies Fund) – $50,000
The Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant requests at this time (with the exception of disaster grants). We continue to investigate partners and programs which will benefit you and your adoptable pets and look forward to continuing to support you in the life-saving work that you do. Have a great adoption week. –K
As referenced in the above post, I applied to Petfinder for 3 FTP accounts so Eskie Rescuers United could have them to find an alternative for uploading to our CA, CO, & TX accounts. I received a denial letter (below) to which I replied (also, below.) I have not yet received a response to that, but I have, again requested the FTP accounts.
_________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: FTP Account Request PA625 TX1225 CA1442
From: “Carl @ ERU”
Date: Mon, September 28, 2009 20:07
To: help@petfinder.com
Cc: ERU-BofD@googlegroups.com
Dear Joe Cabanilla:
Sadly, you are mistaken. This is NOT a better solution for a national breed-rescue organization such as Eskie Rescuers United American Eskimo Dog Rescue, Inc. (ERU) that has its own web site and database of available and adopted pets, AND has volunteers in many, many locations maintaining
the data on our pets.
This solution would require a horrendous duplication of data entry on our part. Duplication of data entry is an a very old, indeed, very archaic approach to data management; one I have been fighting, as a data processing professional, for 35 years.
You reference “legitimate animal management shelter software providers”, but your definition is narrowly restricted to PC-based applications with copies required for each person doing updates. Use of this type of
PC-based software solution would require ERU to spend sorely needed money on many, many copies of this software, retrain people all over the country to use it on their PCs, and generally disrupt our current operation.
We consider RescueGroups to be a “legitimate animal management shelter software provider” in the truest modern sense of this term. The entire world is moving to web-based applications and databases, centrally stored
yet accessible, maintainable, and sharable from many locations and feeding many reference points. This accurately describes the service that RescueGroups is providing to us. And, as such, they offer a critical
alternative to the accident-prone, PC-resident, application.
We would like to post our pets one time to our own website and be able to share them with, not only the 5.2 million adopters at Petfinder but with the many millions of other adopters that access many other pet locating sites.
We find it very sad that Petfinder would take this position previously, now or ever as it only serves to hurt the animals that we are all trying to help.
Sincerely,
Carl Sapelli
Chief Technical Officer
Eskie Rescuers United American Eskimo Dog Rescue, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) Non-profit Organization
______________________________________________
On Fri, September 18, 2009 16:28, help@petfinder.com wrote:
Hi Carl,
We received your request to set up an import of your pets from RescueGroups. Our import system is set up to accept pet data and photos from legitimate animal management shelter software providers. We do not accept imported data from RescueGroups; however, we have a better solution for you and your pets.
Posting your pets directly into Petfinder will allow you to be sure that they are seen by the 5.2 million visitors we bring to see them each month, as well as by all the visitors to the other sites powered by Petfinder data. Because we want to help your pets get maximum exposure, we offer other websites the ability to access the Petfinder database for the purpose of promoting adoptable pets. We have offered this ability to the folks at RescueGroups, as well.
This means that you can post your pets one time
* on Petfinder.com
* and they (and you) can reap all these benefits:
· Over 5.2 million potential adopters visiting the
Petfinder web site each month
· Millions more potential adopters through over 275
popular Web sites powered by Petfinder including AOL,
Petco.com, Oodle, MySpace, ZooToo, and Kijiji.
· Automatic feed to any websites who display pets for
adoption (including RescueGroups/Pet Adoption Portal,
and thus any sites they may feed) through our API
· Eligibility for Petfinder.com Foundation programs and
grants
· Eligibility for Petfinder.com contests, programs and
initiatives (such as the ARS Shelter+ Challenge and
the Maddie?s Fund Put Your Best Face Forward customer
service contest)
· Media outreach and support resulting in over 37
million media impressions each year
· Inclusion in the Ad Council?s first-ever pet adoption
campaign which will be powered by Petfinder pets
There is no other web site or adoption tool which promotes your pets the way Petfinder does. And we will continue to share your adoptable pet data with web sites featuring pet adoption to provide maximum exposure for your pets with the least amount of effort on your part.
Your Petfinder account is available for you to begin posting your pets, their pictures and video right now. Doing so is simple and we are here to help you and your pets in any way we can. You can get started right now by logging in with your ShelterID and password at http://www.petfinder.com/admin
Thanks for your support and please let me know if I can be of additional help.
Please include the history of this message with your reply.
———–
Joe Cabanilla
Petfinder.com, Technical Support Representative
http://www.petfinder.com
Adopt a Homeless Pet!
[...] Earlier today we contacted Petfinder again concerning supporting adoptable pet uploads from RescueGroups.org. [See Update Concerning Petfinder Preventing Pet Updates] [...]
Thought of the day …
PetFinder would not be what it is today without shelters and rescue groups willing to list pets on it. The harder PetFinder makes it for shelters and rescue groups to post their listings, the more PetFinder has to lose. Think about it.
and make PetFinder think about it.
Well, thanks a lot PetFinder for ruining the best setup that has ever happened for animal rescue groups. I for one will no longer trust PetFinder. I believe this is just the first step in a plan PetFinder has to make more money off of our adoptable pets. Who knows, next thing they might try is to charge us per animal for listings. They already subject our viewers to annoying ads. Seems to me that PetFinder is trying to force animal rescue groups into chosing one or the other, PetFinder or RescueGroups. Well, that choice is VERY simple!!!!! I would never give up RescueGroups. We get more people looking at our animals from google, adoptapet, saveapet, petharbor, etc anyway! no loss for us to drop PetFinder. So I wonder, what will PetFinder do when all the other animal rescue groups realize they really aren’t getting all that many web page hits from PetFinder and make the same choice? And I do wonder also, why is it that they are allowing RescueGroups to upload those who had the service before 2007, but not those after? How can that be? I mean, isn’t that descrimination or something? What difference is it to PetFinder if the groups that signed up after 2007 get uploaded also? If they are allowing RescueGroups to upload some they should allow them to upload all. Bad decision PetFinder, and unfortunately for you it will probably be your ruin. PetFinder will go down in history as the ones who ruined a good thing for homeless animals.
Apparently, this is perceived by PetFinders as some sort of turf war. Too bad about that! RescueGroups Pet Portal is the best thing we have ever seen for our rescue Weims.
I didnt know any of this was going on until I got a message from PetFinders this morning saying my listings had not been updated in over 30 days! I thought they were all listed there from the Pet Portal by Rescue Groups. Then I signed in to our PetFinders site. In looking at all the names, only one was still available out of the 10 or so that were still listed on PetFinders. I had to delete 9 names which had been adopted months ago. This tells me that we are getting FAR more response from the RescueGroups portal posts than on PetFinders. The last update to PetFinders was Sept 7, 2009 and yet, no one has contacted me about any of those 10 dogs listed (9 if which are no longer available) on PetFinders
I do not have time to post the very same stuff on PetFinders just because they dont want to cooperate and work together for the benefit of rescue dogs.
There is something else going on here. When in doubt, follow the money…..:(
Elena Lamberson
Rescue Coordinator
Gr Charleston Weimaraner Club Rescue
http://www.grchasweimclub.org/rescue.htm
I did not know that our information was not going to PetFinders until they sent me a message saying I had not updated our list in 30 days. So, I went to the PetFinders site and sure enough there were 10 Rescue Weims listed which has been sent in thru the Pet Portal (RescueGroups). However, 9 of the 10 listed had already long since been adopted. Since that time we have placed 10 more which means that our homes came from the other sites -I think many said Adopt A Pet was where they saw our listing. So, looks like PetFinders shot themselves in their own foot by pulling out.
The Pet Portal by RescueGroups is the best thing to happen for Rescue coordinators! It is so comforting to know that our postings on the Pet Portal goes to some 18 other sites.
There is something else going on here besides a turf war – just follow the money.
Elena Smith Lamberson
Gr Charleston Weimaraner Club Rescue Coordinator
http://www.grchasweimclub.org/rescue.htm
Rehoming Weimaraners since 1983
Hello all,
After researching PetFinder’s “open” abilities for sending/receiving data as well as reading all the frustrations that this has caused I would like to offer a solution that myself a few developer friends have recently launched. MeetaPet.com
We do have an open API system in place for anyone with a website or program that would like to send/receive data from our site. We’re not littered with ads and the interface is very straight forward making the ability to find pets extremely easy. Please drop by when you can, tell your local shelter or rescue and email with any feedback/questions!