Possibly because it’s simply been successful and not mired in lawsuits, no one will make a movie called “The Furry Network” about the origins of Petfinder.com. But perhaps even more than Facebook, Petfinder results in real “social networking.”
The revolutionary venture that lets people search for pets online turned 15 in March. (So, in dog years, this is a venerable 76-year-old institution … a neat trick that lets it predate the internet.)
The site, funded by sponsored ads, has a database of 318,872 adoptable pets (dogs, cats, rabbits and birds) from 13,423 shelter groups. People can search by kind of animal, breed, gender, size and/or age. Typing in your ZIP Code gives results from shelters closest to home. The service is free for shelters, rescue groups and adopters. Since its start in 1996, 17.5 million pets have been adopted through Petfinder, according to USA Today.
Betsy Banks Saul, who started the site with her then-husband Jared Saul, says her goal for 2011 is to have 2.5 million animals adopted through Petfinder — 1 million more than last year, USA Today reported. The technologically savvy couple has helped traditionally technologically unsavvy animal shelters use the internet beyond their wildest hopes to help place homeless animals.
Despite the adoption successes, the reality remains that about 4 million animals are euthanized in shelters each year. Banks Saul believes Petfinder can help reduce those numbers.
Anyone who has visited an animal shelter knows it can be a bit overwhelming, with so many pets needing a home. It can be easy for a person to fall for the first pretty face they see, whether the pet is a good fit or not. Searching Petfinder first, on the other hand, where shelters try very hard to evaluate and describe the pets — it’s actually possible to find the perfect match. (Dating sites might work better if people were described by people other than themselves.)
If people are patient, the perfect pet they are dreaming of will present itself on Petfinder. Or the perfect one they never imagined.
As the site grew, its popularity became unprecedented. In 2006, the cable television channel Animal Planet, part of Discovery Communications Inc., bought Petfinder. Details weren’t disclosed, but the Los Angeles Times reported the company paid about $35 million. The Sauls remain with the site, as do other original employees.
Petfinder’s success has naturally bred competition. But other sites are either redundant, or lack as many listings. It’s difficult to quanitify “the desire to save animals” in a business model, but it’s what launched Petfinder, and is responsible for its success.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
