Petfinder, the virtual home of 322,743 adoptable pets from 13,461 adoption groups, is celebrating its 15th birthday on March 15. The celebration kicks off with *Help Petfinder Adopt the Internet Day*. I remember way back when Petfinder.com launched and what an amazing resource I thought it was – I *found* Bruiser, the doxie, on Petfinder which led me to Indigo Rescue, an organization I’m now involved with. Bruiser was on *the list* at one of our local county shelters and Indigo put him with a foster family while searching for potential forever homes. I cannot imagine my life without all three of our rescued hounds.
I asked a local PDX rescue group, Oregon Dog Rescue (ODR) about how Petfinder has helped their network find adoptable pets. I know almost all rescues use Petfinder as a resource, help them celebrate their 15th birthday this week by spreading the word about pet adoption.
According to Petfinder, “Shelters and rescue group members have reported that more than 60% of their adoptions are from Petfinder.”
ODR’s Barbara Roach provided some great stories and facts about the influence Petfinder has had on their organization: (I love this first story)
Q. Given this is Petfinder’s 15th b-day, do you have a story about an ODR dog that found their forever home and family via Petfinder?
A. On February 27th a one year old Scottie was listed on petfinder. The shelter was in Idaho and has limited capacity and funding. It has a high kill rate as it's only open 4 partial days a week, manned by with one shelter staff and one part-time kennel personnel. The Scottie was to be euthanized on March 1 if not adopted. Oregon Dog Rescue posted a plea on their facebook page hoping someone would find a way to rescue this dog. The response was amazing. Supporters started offering to drive legs of the trip to Idaho, even under some blizzard conditions, to get the dog back to Portland. One of our ODR supporters happened to be in Sun Valley. She offered to make the 2 hour drive and pull the dog from the shelter.
Then another facebook fan, someone we had never met, said they could fly for free and offered to not only fly the Scottie but a 2nd dog, a 10 month old puppy that also was scheduled to be euthanized on the 1st, back to Portland. Terri Rise, flew out the next morning, Leslie Pope drove to the shelter, pulled the 2 dogs, got them to her vet for their health certificates to fly and drove them to Boise to meet Terri and put them on the plane.
The puppy, who we named Wiley, was taken in for neutering and shots and then his story was posted on Petfinder. The inquiries started rollling in. He was immediately adopted by a wonderful family. The Scottie is residing with one of the cofounders of Oregon Dog Rescue. Had the dog not been placed on petfinder, ODR would not have known about them and most likely the end of the story would not be so great.
Q. Do you think petfinder has changed the world for rescues with limited resources?
A. Absolutely. We have had numerous transports of 30-40 dogs coming up from high kill shelters in California. The only access to finding out about them is through petfinder. We learned there is a shortage of tiny dogs in Canada and several rescues have been able to place a lot of Chihuahua and Chihuahua mixes up there.
Q. What feature do you love about petfinder that helps ODR adoptable pets reach the right families?
A. Petfinder has an easy search feature that allows someone to search by type of pet, breed, age, size, etc. As soon as a dog comes into rescue we can immediately post its photo and some information about the dog online. They also have a feature that allows a prospective adopter to enter their criteria and then when a dog that matches shows up on petfinder, they are emailed the information. You can search shelters by zip codes, cities and type of animal it has available.
Q. How many ODR pets found homes in 2010? Can this be attributed to petfinder?
A. Oregon Dog Rescue has been in operation since August 2007 but we have been able to place 1,030 dogs in forever homes. We could not have gotten our name out and driven people to our adoption days without the exposure on Petfinder. Every Saturday except holidays, we hold adoption events at the Tualatin Petsmart from 11am - 5pm and we are able to advertise that on Petfinder. Our adoption page on our website www.oregondogrescue.org also links directly to our petfinder page.
Q. What upcoming events does ODR have planned in March and April?
A. We hold adoption events every Saturday at the Tualatin Petsmart from 11am - 5:00pm. On March 15th we are encouraging everyone to post the petfinder logo on their facebook page as part of a national online awareness day for Petfinder's 15 year birthday event. Then May 22nd is our annual Henry's Walk-A-Thon and fundraiser. The funds raised go into our emergency medical fund which allows us to take in some medically challenged dogs that otherwise we would have to turn away. Henry is our poster child. He was taken in from a hoarder situation. At one year old he was almost blind from cataracts. The specialty surgery is very expensive but we could not let a one year old terrier go blind. Henry was also a behavior challenge as he was so withdrawn and shy he would pee all over at just the sight of a human. Henry did get adopted eventually by a special person who knew just how to bring him out of his shell. This year Henry has gained enough confidence that he is going to lead our walk. You can get more information on our facebook page and it will be posted soon on our website, or anyone can email me at barbara@oregondogrescue.org for the information.
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