PetFinder

Spent weeks looking for the right dog. Found one. Asked about him in an email. Then filled out the looong adoption app only to have it forwarded to a rescue in my state. I offered to pay to come meet the dog and bring him home. Nope. If that's one of the rules of that shelter it should be the first thing you read on their homepage so you don't waste your time. Furthermore, they are ridiculously crazy questions in the adoption app. If they can call a vet that you've used for more than 15 years and he confirms that you are a responsible pet owner, that should be enough. Good grief I know they have to be thorough but this is crazy. They beg you to "adopt not shop" then turn you down. Also, PetFinder should have a standard adoption app so you're not filling out one for each shelter because God only knows who is getting all you personal information! PISSED (can you tell?)

I find Petfinder completely useless in finding a local dog or puppy. All the searches using Vancouver, BC canada as the location and indicting dogs within a 100 mile radius, will show multiple dog broker sites mainly from Texas. These dogs are in Texas and thats more than 2000 miles from my home. Although I support all abandoned dogs finding new homes many of these 'shelters" are dog brokers who know little about their dogs and often conceal a dog with problems. They are asking significant prices and offer no facility or support here. If a dog bought this way has problems there is no help from the brokers. The dogs are shipped to Seattle upon adoption and then brought home to Vancouver BC. Many of these dogs are now turning up in our local shelters. I think it is unethical that Petfinder advertises these dogs as being within 100miles of my home when in fact they are over 2000 miles away.

A recent inquiry regarding the very recent placement of a pet illustrated quite clearly the priorities of Tualatin Petfinder: $$$

Context: The pet in question resided with a family member within our home for an extended period of time, until our relocation across the country produced a separation. Unfortunately, our family member recognized an impending struggle to meet the pets needs and returned the pet to petfinder without asking us for support due to cross-country relocation. Upon learning about the pet's re-placement with Petfinder (shudder) I inquired the NEXT day about adoption as my significant other is in Portland on business (regularly), but we would gladly fly her to our new home where her step-fur-brothers have 3/4 of a fenced acre to chase balls and squirrels.

Petfinder's response verbatim, "we don't place pets outside of a 3.5 hr radius."

Radius versus familiar home.

Best interest of a very timid pet? No. Another $295.00fee after life in a shelter? Yes.

The owners of pet finder should be ashamed of themselves for banning the adoption posts of innocent animals that have been rescued from the slaughter pipeline. They are essentially saying the animal should go to slaughter rather than find a loving home! As a company that CLAIMS to stand by these living sentient beings such a move betrays all that they claim to stand for! It's clear that the scum that make money from the horrific treatment and slaughter of certain animals (horses, farm animals ect) are more important to Pet finder than helping these animals find loving homes. I suspect money and politics to be a huge part of their decision and for that very reason I will NEVER use this website again if they don't change their policies and will spread the word to everyone I know about how much Petfinder really cares!

I have applied for 4 different dogs in the last months, all you get is ohhh we see this dog in your future... well I don't know where their looking but I still don't have a dog... I am just an older woman who wants a dog to love... he's not gonna be a mule for drugs, or be into dog fighting, I am not gonna starve him, beat him or set him on fire... I want to give him a home... with love... petfinder is a joke. Sorry... no, not sorry

Was supposed to be house trained. However I received her dirty. She is afraid to go outside. She is not house trained. Wouldn't let me go to the kennel. Which I found out was a house. I don't think these dogs don't get what they deserve. I bet it's all about the money. I'm not sending her back. I wouldn't do that to any dog.

Don't get your hopes up like i did, i wanted to adopt a puppy and i was perfectly qualified. First of all, they take weeks to respond but anyways they denied my application bc i didn't fill in all the references, (there are three, i was only able to fill in two) i thought it was ridiculous so i explained that i had enough money, a nice yard, etc since they found every excuse to try and deny my application. And it wasn't until i mentioned money they answered… they said i had to pay a $50 fee to get more information, then i realized this was a scam. Please don't waste your time.

Petfinder is an inexpensive way some reputable shelters use to get animals adopted. That said, I wouldn't recommend using Petfinder to contact the shelter or to apply unless you don't want to be seriously considered. I can see the shelter's point of view - on the internet, no one knows if you are a dog. If you serious about adopting, then go to the shelter when they are open and talk to the volunteers, meet the animal, and if you are match then you'll have a new addition to your home. For all you know, there will be a better fit for your family at the shelter that was NOT on petfinder. That's what it's all about - family.

I have tried to use pet finder in the past and always found it untenable. Always one barrier after another to actually adopting a pet... the proverbial always "another hoop to jump through". I get the need for screening folks interested in adopting but when the process is so onerous that good prospects give up trying... are you REALLY helping homeless pets?

I am also convinced that this organization has a systemic bias against the poor. The fees are often outrages. Heads up you dinks... some of the best, most loving homes for animals are provided by people from the lower economic groups and I have seen some of the worst homes belonging to the ultra wealthy.

So for all those looking for your "forever" best friend call your local shelters - stay clear of pet finder and breed rescues (which often have no intention of adopting out an animal and are just a cover for breed hoarders to get around local animal limit laws)

There are puppy mills posing as 'shelters' and 'rescues' on this site. I have actual proof of a puppy mill/backyard breeder that sells on Petfinder (claimed to be registered, changed name multiple times, has only designer poodle puppies, no phone number, didn't answer any of my questions about the organization, fake address, no adoption screening actually done, no phone number, etc. etc etc...). Local people and local vets have not heard of "Four Feet & a Heartbeat" that is supposedly located in Lacombe, Alberta and fosters out their dogs. They are scamming people into buying and fostering expensive dogs. I reported to PetFinder and they did not do anything!
This site can be helpful for finding pets from shelters but they are not a trustworthy site as anyone can post a pet here and claim to be a shelter/rescue. Do your research on which organization you are adopting from! Petfinder needs to do better if they claim to only show legitimate shelter/rescues on their site

Told to contact them after 10 business days if I have not heard from them. No way to get phone number to do so. Email contact does not work. Petfinder emailed me to tell me that the process was in process. Can't talk to anyone. Email to them doesn't work either.

I tried getting my foster kittens on their website to get them to forever homes. They make you jump through hoops just to qualify to get on their website. We found these kittens on the roadside in near death condition. We paid for their vet care out of pocket, and got them nursed to perfect health after several hundred dollars of vet care.

We hoped to get them adopted, but Petfinder insists on letterhead vet reference letters which our vet doesn't have. Our Google adoption application form just wouldn't suffice for Petfinder. They add layers of onerous requirements that make it impossible to work with them.

Obviously they aren't in the business of finding forever homes. They're just another lousy "non-profit " that doesn't function to help foster pets. I'll stand in front of Petsmart instead.

My husband and I just happened to be scrolling through the site looking at beagle puppies. We breed AKC registered beagles I just wanted to look at other sites curiosity. As we were scrolling through their site unbeknownst us we found a
2 year old photo of one of our dogs from when he was a puppy posted by one of their "breeders" needless to say the photo had been stolen from my Facebook page and our 2 year old dog was being posted by a fraudulent breeder as being for sale as an 8 week old puppy. My husband and I have never done business with this particular site we only use AKC we just wanted to look and to our surprise we found a photo of our own dog being posted so I say buyer beware do not trust this site because they do not care about those of you looking for a furry family member to add all they care about is making money from their breeders and they will not look out for you as a buyer.

I find Petfinders to be a total waste of time and, IMHO, is probably a sham. I cannot tell you how many pets I applied to adopt. None of which ever sent me a reply. And these are from the organizations that "supposedly" put the dog up for adoption! And this is not the first time that this has happened. I tried once in 2020, again in 2021, and now in 2022. This is the last time I will ever use them. They are truly a total waste of time. I don't think they screen any of those organizations who are putting pets up for adoption. They simply take their money for the listing and are done with them.

In my search for a new puppy for our home. I found a rescue from petfinder.com and inquired about a puppy. I received an email and a call immediately from the rescue and was immediately berated. The woman asked me who would be with the animal during the day and once I told her that both my husband and I worked and would have someone come to our home during the day, she immediately began telling me that I didn't need a puppy if someone else was going to raise it and then proceeded to scold me because of this. I have never in my 46 years been treated in such a terrible manner and would not EVER EVER recommend this shelter. I would suggest that petfinder review the people that they let advertise on their site. If this is how people are being treated, then I would hate to know how these poor animals are being treated.

Here's my issue with petfinders. I had an appointment to pick up a cat 4 and 1/2 hours away at animal kind in Hudson New York. I went all the way up there and they told me the cat was rehomed. Now my references were called and I got great references my appointment was made no problem until I got there and then they tried to get me to pick one of their other scraggly cats. I talked to the owner by email after calling petfinders that never called me back. And calling Purina. She promised to do good now it's been a week since I last heard from her and nothing. Imagine how upset you would be going home without the pet you thought you were getting. And then coming back to a house full of toys. Cat food etc. Not only am I not trusting petfinders right now I'm not trusting animal kind either. Since petfinders let them advertise without probably proper vetting then they are going to be in the lawsuit that I file against her if she doesn't make things right.

HappyHomes are the most insensitive, obnoxious pet "rescuers" I gave ever met. We lost our 20 year old pet cat last week and our entire family is devastated. We wanted to get 2 new kitties. We found one a few miles from our house and asked to buy one of three in a litter these people supposedly "rescued." They said I had to buy all three. I offered to pay for all three so they could get a good home for the other two, but we thought two was what our family could handle. The woman became rude and hostile. I would never use this website or recommend anyone else use it. These are not rescuers, they are mean insensitive people.