Petfinder.org
Petfinder.com (also Petfinder.org) is an online database of adoptable pets in the care of about 13,000 animal welfare organizations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The site has facilitated 17 million adoptions in its first fifteen years. At any one time, 300,000 adoptable pets are listed: dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, small furry animals, horses, pigs and more. Some animal welfare groups report that they have more than doubled their adoptions as a result of Petfinder listings and others claim that up to ninety percent of their adoptions are a result of people finding them on Petfinder. Users can search by kind of animal, breed, gender, size and/or age. The results of the search are ranked in proximity to the user’s Zip Code. Each participating shelter and rescue group has its own home page and pet list on the site. The pets have their own home pages, too, with a description and usually a photograph. Shelter personnel and volunteers keep the lists of pets continuously updated, so the number of pets changes daily. The site is free to both the public and shelters and rescue groups.
The site also includes discussion boards, a resource library and classified ads.
Petfinder.com is supported by sponsorship and free to potential adopters and to its members.
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[edit] History
Betsy Banks Saul and Jared Saul came up with the idea of Petfinder.com in early 1996 as a resolution to do something for homeless animals. They were not active in the animal sheltering community, but had skills with computers and graphic design. Overriding that, was a strong interest in animals. At first, the site was limited to their home state of New Jersey and was simply a labor of love. Demand and popularity led to rapid national and international expansion. Petfinder has always been a free service for shelters and rescue groups as well as potential adopters.
Petfinder is credited for changing the way Americans look for new pets. By Petfinder's 15th anniversary, it had helped place over 17 million pets with families. Petfinder also created the first large-scale opportunity for North American companies to market to potential adopters allowing corporate advertising dollars to support the companies costs, and as such, flow into the resource-poor world of companion animal welfare. Original corporate sponsors were Petopia, Petco, Purina, Bissell, and Merial. Petfinder would sometimes host summits and bring these companies together to develop ideas to best promote homeless pets.
On November 2, 2006, Discovery Communications announced the acquisition of Petfinder.com. Betsy Banks Saul, petfinder.com's president and co-founder initially reported to Maureen Smith under Animal Planet Media Enterprises.[1] Petfinder was later moved out of Animal Planet and into Discovery Communications' digital media group where it currently resides. Betsy Banks Saul and Jared Saul are still involved with Petfinder as are many of Petfinder's original employees. They are also founding board members of the Petfinder.com Foundation, which partners with Petfinder, Discovery Communications, for charitable causes.
The success of Petfinder has spurred the creation of many competitive sites such as shelternetwork, pets911, adoptapet.com and petango.com. Another charity that is somewhat linked to pet finder is Save-A-Sato. Which flies Puerto Rican dogs to the United States for adoption. Many of these dogs, such as Natalia the Terrier have happy endings from this organization. Often, the organization makes sure that the pet and owner are compatible and that they will have a symbiotic relationship.
At this time, Petfinder.com is responsible for finding homes for approximately 2.5 million pets each year.
In 2010, Petfinder.com released a mobile application that allows users to look at information and pictures of adoptable pets in their local area. The app is available for the iPhone and was developed by Phunware, Inc.[2] The application has since been featured in an Apple iphone app commercial, been noted as one of TIME magazine's top ten applications of 2010 and won a 2011 Webby, People's Voice Award.
[edit] Katrina aftermath
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In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Petfinder.com served a vital role in reuniting displaced residents with the pets they were forced to leave behind. Animal welfare groups converged on the city of New Orleans, the flooded parishes, and the Gulf Coast to save hundreds of abandoned pets. As a voluntary project Petfinder.com and staff created the Animal Emergency Rescue Network, where over 17,000 pets were eventually posted.
Shelter and rescue groups across America, a self-appointed group of animal advocates called "the rogue volunteers" and Petfinder played a pivotal role in re-homing pets during Hurricane Katrina and through the emergency database Petfinder built, over 11,000 of the 17,000 lost and displaced pets were reunited with their original owners. Some of these reunions happened years after the hurricane.
Several non-profit organizations such as the Petfinder.com Foundation and Maddie's Fund helped support the Animal Emergency Rescue Network.
[edit] See also
- DogsBlog.com - a similar programme in the UK
