Where to adopt your own Jasmine Blue

Petfinder.com

   

Determined to do something to help homeless pets, Betsy and Jared Saul came up with the idea of an online catalog of adoptable pets available from shelter and rescue groups. Their love of animals combined with their own computer and graphic skills resulted in the introduction of Petfinder.com to the World Wide Web in 1996.They started by listing pets available just within their home state of New Jersey, but the success and popularity of the concept quickly found favor with pet adoption agencies nationwide. Today, Petfinder.com is the largest searchable database of homeless pets online.    

Visitors to Petfinder.com are introduced to adoptable pets from over 10,000 public and private shelters and rescue organizations from the United States, Canada and Mexico. From the over 210,000 pets listed on the site today, you first narrow your viewing choices by animal type – barnyard, bird, cat, dog, horse, pig, rabbit, reptile, or the grab bag category of “small and furry.” You can further narrow your selection by breed, age, size, gender, and location. Search results are presented in a list of available animals that match your criteria, with links to both the organization housing the pet and a bio page specific to that animal. Petfinder.com does not place any animals; its only purpose is to introduce you to the existing animals available for adoption.
   

The service is free to both visitors and animal placement organizations thanks to generous sponsors, which include Petco, Purina, Bissell and Merial. This free-use aspect has allowed thousands of smaller, no-budget rescue groups access to as large an audience as the most well-funded shelters around the country. The result is over 10 million adoptions assisted by Petfinder.com since its inception.
   

In addition to the adoption galleries, the site offers potential and new adopters a library of information and resources on pet health, behavior and care. A full directory of the placement groups represented online can be listed by state – California alone has 884 agencies participating with Petfinder.com.
   

In 2003, the charitable Petfinder.com Foundation was created to assist adoption agency partners through problem solving and fundraising, and it has already made a huge impact by supporting disaster relief efforts. In response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the Foundation distributed more than $520,000 to help fund direct care of displaced animals, house-to-house rescues and temporary animal shelters. Nearly $9,000 of transportation grants was awarded to help reunite displaced animals with their original owners. After Hurricane Katrina, Petfinder.com’s programmers worked 20-hour shifts to get the Animal Emergency Response Network system (AERN) online in just days. Rescue databases from HSUS, ASPCA and others were imported, cleaned up and made public. The Dish Network launched and installed the “Katrina Information Network” in over 200 human shelters, and partnered with Petfinder.com to develop daily two-hour slideshows of “found” pets housed in the temporary shelters along the Gulf Coast states. Over 17,000 displaced pets were posted with the help of this rescue partnership.
   

In November 2006, Discovery Communications bought Petfinder.com to form Animal Planet Media. Their stated plans are for the site to remain unchanged while providing users the expanded pet resources available through association with AnimalPlanet.com.
   

Petfinder.com set out with a goal of helping all the Jasmine Blues of the world find a loving home. While on that road, they have become more than just an adoption clearing house by aiding in the return of lost pets, helping shelters professionalize their services through training and outreach, and helping to bring new services to adoption groups and new pet parents.
   

There are many happy pets that can be forever thankful for the amazing revolution that a gallery of photos called Petfinder.com has brought to animal rescue services.