Petfinder
reviews and complaints

As someone deeply passionate about pet adoption, I understand the importance of finding the right platform to connect with furry companions. Francois's Friends, a platform aiming to facilitate pet adoptions, has received mixed reviews from users. While some have expressed frustration over the lack of responsiveness and outdated information, others have shared heartwarming stories of successful adoptions. It seems that the platform's effectiveness heavily relies on the individual shelters and rescues it collaborates with. If you're considering using Francois's Friends, it may be beneficial to approach the process with patience and persistence, ensuring you find the perfect match for your family. Remember, every pet deserves a loving home, and the journey to finding your new furry friend might have its ups and downs, but the end result is always worth it.

''About two weeks ago I adopted a purebred Yorkshire terrier from ''Purebred rescue of FL through petfinder.com. I drove to Brooksville FL from Little rock, Arkansas to pick the dog up from their rescue. The staff is fantastic, they treat their clients with nothing but kindness. It is hard to find a legitimate rescue group these days so I am grateful I found them. My only complaint toward the rescue is their high fee's.

No matter the breed, sex or age - this site seems to have them all! I have decided rather than purchase my next dog from a breeder, I will check out available animals on this site. You can search by age, sex, breed, species and location. This is a VERY well designed site. Sometimes it's a little heartbreaking to read the stories of the little critters looking for homes. Before you buy from a breeder, consider adopting from here!

I love looking at these pets and they have great service to but they have a sweet dog there named penny and she is a boxer mix with a german shepherd I think I have gone there 5 times just to say hi to her so if you are looking for an older dog that is sweet and clam look for Penny she has been there since she was a puppy and I have enough pets but I think she deserves a chance to so please look at Penny. In fact, I go on this site as much as I can just to find Penny and see if she has finally found a forever home. She won't be there forever so lets be there for her.

PetFinder's job is to show you what rescue organizations are in your area, and what animals those orgs have listed as available. THAT is their job. Not to get you the animal, or respond to your inquiries, or arrange your adoption, or anything else.
People coming on here and giving PetFinder negative marks for things that the adoption agencies are doing wrong are totally misplaced and confused. If you send an inquiry and get no response, that's on YOU to follow up with the ORGANIZATION not PetFinder. If you contact someone at a rescue and they're rude, that's the rescue's problem, not PetFinder's.
These negative reviewers don't seem to understand that they're getting mad at Facebook when their friend doesn't accept their request. It's not them, it's you.

I found my girl Sophie on Petfinder. I would recommend it as the first place to go when looking for a companion animal. It has easy search options. Just key in your location, what type of creature you're looking for, breed, gender, age, size, optional questions are does your home have cats/dogs/children.
Then the site filters through and presents you with a photo album of animals who might fit the profile you've created. It's wise to record maybe four possibilities. Also remember that some shelters won't have an animal filed by name. Definitely have any case numbers as well.
I feel it's also good to have several options so you can make a better choice. You only know if a creature is a good fit for you by meeting them. Not just from an online description. An example, I was taken by a photo of a male dog at a local shelter. When I actually met him he was much larger than his picture suggested.
They also hadn't mentioned his tendency to hump humans. He was so wound up he ripped my jacket as I tried to snap on his leash. Sadly I had the warden take him back to his kennel. The story ended happy though... The pup in the next cage turned out to be a winner and has been with us for four years now.

I would give High Springs animal unit a million stars if I could! I adopt dogs from different rescues across the state and stumbled upon this rescue... I was looking for another yorkie and I found this rescue on allpaws.com. I contacted them and they were very friendly abd knowledgeable, they answered all my questions. They allowed me to come to the shelter and check out all of the adorable pups available for adoption. I was given permission to take the dogs out of the kennels and play with them. I chose to adopt Cinderella the Shih Tzu because I heard her background story and it broke my heart. She's been through so much and I knew that she deserves to be loved and I could give her that. More than a month after adopting her, she's doing good and I fall more in love with her each and every day I have her! My other dog's adore her! She was shy at first but has warmed up well, Cinderella is sweet and well behaved. I wanted a Yorkie but she's the best thing that's happened to me all year! I couldn't be happier. I would highly recommend this shelter. It's a shame that allpaws no longer has a website and this shelter doesn't get enough attention but they should because they are awesome! Please adopt from this rescue, you won't be disappointed. I plan on adopting gabby next, she is s Yorkie.

I see a lot of negative reviews for this site and I'm not sure the site itself is to blame. I looked at this site as being kind of a Craigslist for animals only safer for the animals. Petfinders posts pics and bios of pets for shelters throughout the U.S.A. If you had issues with trying to adopt an animal, I believe it is the shelters who are at fault in having outdated information as to whether or not a pet is still available. In searching for a dog for myself I spent over a year searching on Petfinder.com as well as a similar site and at local shelters in my area. Each shelter promoting adoptions on Petfinder has their own adoption process. Some seemed to be extremely lengthy. Also, so many people have been adopting pets since the pandemic began that going through all the applications takes awhile especially if the shelter is all voluntary. I just wanted to explain this so you don't become discouraged from adopting. I actually was able to adopt my dog from a profiled dog that I found on Petfinders and she is perfect for me and my circumstances. If you are in a hurry to adopt and don't want to take the time to apply, do a meet and greet in your home, and pay sometimes a nominal fee depending on your circumstances, you may instead want to visit your area shelters and find your new pet.

Petfinder does a great job of advertising thousands of animals up for adoption with daily updates of new pets or news of ones who may have been adopted from your favorites list. Most of what I read here in the reviews are complaints against individual animal shelters, not Petfinder. Let's try to vent our unhappiness in the right place.

Now that we're on to complaints about individual adoption agencies, I'd like to complain that in general, the folks running pet adoption agencies are extremely uppity, demand a ridiculous amount of highly personal information we have no idea what they do with and make judgements about people that may not be fair or appropriate. My biggest beef of all is the GHOSTING of people. After you religiously fill out their 5 page application, share more information than what is required to adopt a child and made a sworn affidavit that every thing you said was true, THEY DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR APPLICATION, WRITE YOU BACK OR TELL YOU THE REASON YOU HAVE BEEN REJECTED. This is outrageously rude and no way to treat the people you want to adopt pets. I've had cats my whole life, but didn't get new cats when my two died of old age because we wanted to travel. I own my own home, have a steady income, great references and a nice veterinarian to put in a good word for me, but I am being ghosted over and over again and the only thing I can think of is that I am over 65. How do they know what physical condition I am in? I could outlive all of them. They could die of covid, get in a car wreck, overdose on something, or get cancer just like anyone else can. I walk at least 3 miles a day, do my own home improvements and volunteer at an arts organization in my area. It's outrageous they judge people without meeting them. I'm sure a lot of the younger folks are pros at writing what they want to hear and get pets they may not be responsible for in the long run. These volunteers may not have much education or have social emotional issues that make them want to play God over others. There are millions of homeless pets in this country. IF THEY WANT PEOPLE TO TAKE THESE ANIMALS, THEY PERHAPS COULD BE A BIT LESS RIGID WITH THEIR "RULES".

STAY AWAY FROM KITTYKARE, KITTY SHOCKWAVE (RUN BY STEVEN JOSEPH HOCK https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/pets/cat-hoarder-jailbird-runs-animal-rescue-group-60-days-rikers-article-1.***)
I contacted Kittykare and they put me in contact with a guy named "steve". We talked a couple times over the phone, seemed like a good man. I did have some red flags pop up early on and honestly should have done more research. He showed me some of the cats he had (that fit the age/personality of what I thought would go best with my current adult cat). Here's what I went through:
1) One of the pictures showed a rather ill-looking kitty but the picture had flash and was kind of blurry. I went with another kitty but that one did concern my family and I.
2) Over the phone, he was telling me how it was fine to not get cats vaccinated because there has been some proof that cancer developed at the injection sites. Yikes.
3) When he came to do a house inspection and a meet and greet, he didn't really check for much (loose wires, meshed windows, etc.) and SMELLED an awful lot like saliva. Sour, pungent, and just... yuck. The stench lingered even when he left and I thought maybe it was the kitty (I didn't know he was a hoarder then).
4) I left the kitty alone for a whole day but realized on day 2 that something was wrong. Took her to the vet and she had ear mites, giardia, was abnormally sensitive to light (hence a lot of squinting), AND severe gingivitis.
-Since it was her first visit, the vet couldn't rule out whether she developed this overnight or it got more severe overnight or was given to me like this.
-They THINK the gingivitis was attributed to a poor diet (Steve was feeding her some cheap fancy feast)
-the giardia/ear mites might have been from drinking water/living with multiple cats (hoarding?)
-her color wasn't all that intensely orange and she was actually pee stained/having trouble cleaning. He couldn't even bath her? I did it the second day in and the more I rubbed, the more the smell hit me! She looked so much better health-wise and appearance-wise after the bath. A simple bath!
5) I had to pay for a ton of bills two days into getting her and he would refute every claim I made. I had pictures and proof but his explanations would be something like "how come you didn't see the itching/bald spots when I showed her to you (which he didn't really and I didn't push because she was shy)? It obviously wasn't there when I had her". Ridiculous.
6) He said I signed a contract and that I was liable for everything after. I understand that but it doesn't if you give someone a cat with pre-existing conditions, CLAIM for them to be clean and up to date, and then for it to not be true even AFTER adopting.
7) He started trying to play the woe-is-me card by saying he did so much for me by traveling to another borough and bringing her to me. He said he does it out of the good of his heart because there's no profit to these services. He OFFERED to transport the animal to me and said that it was a part of the service. Also, I was a full time student working a part time job, volunteering, and doing an unpaid internship at the time. I did not hesitate to pay the bills and did not even mention this until he started whining about how much he did for me.
8) There is a mandatory "donation" but the price at RECOMMENDED. I just gave in full since it would be the same I would pay for a younger cat in ASPCA. He kept saying it was optional but if it really was, does that mean these cats could be given out even if someone gave a measly $50?
9) He also made it seem like it wasn't his fault because he's "just" a foster, but turns out he OWNS the kittyshockwave company. I did NOT know KittyKare referred me to someone OUTSIDE of their company and this Steven guy wasn't working under them.
10) KittyKare replied saying they personally know Steven and that he's going back to court "to recover damages for false arrest and false imprisonment". I read articles on his case and he had 69 (official reports say 62) cats in a U-Haul van after the landlord threatened to evict him due to his neighbors reporting a stench coming from his apartment (I would know...). He served 60 days in Rikers and had probation for 3 years restricting him from owning any more animals. I don't care what he was trying to appeal or believes was misunderstood. I think he retrialed in 2015 for whatever he wanted to be rectified... but 60-something cats in a u-haul van parked outside, exposed to the elements, and inadequately fed? Lord jesus. He told me not to believe everything being written out there but... at this point, I don't know why he'd think I'd STILL believe him.
https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/pets/cat-hoarder-jailbird-runs-animal-rescue-group-60-days-rikers-article-1.***
11) He said the kitten was adopted out before me and in the contract, it states that if you do not want him/her anymore, you HAVE to give it back to kitty shockwave. He told me that the previous owner refused to give her back to him and relinquished her to ACC instead (which Steve got custody back from). My guess is she wasn't in great condition and if they couldn't provide for her (they didn't sign up to own a sick cat anyway), I'd say that was a better choice than giving the cat back to Steve since he did nothing for her or CLAIMED to have not noticed anything awry.

She is THRIVING now. Everything was taken care of and the only thing left is her dental health which I have water additives, gel, toothpaste, and treats to address. We're making slow but steady progress with her gingivitis.

I have been very disappointed with the customer service. I have sent hundreds of emails with unread no responses. And from my experiences, they don't check out the people who are registering to have accounts. Because someone contacted me through them that had a fake name. When I asked for I d it did not match the name on the account. Would I recommend this company definitely not. Are there better companies out there definitely yes. I use adopt a pet now they are a lot better than this company is. They have customer service that actually responds to your questions and complaints..

After filling out the applications, submitted so many inquiries on pets and sent so many emails, I still receive no response. I have found matches on the website, send inquiries to try to adopt the dog(s) and never hear back from ANYONE! Petfinder is nothing but Scam. It's just a waste of time thinking anyone will reply to your inquiries. It is extremely frustrating. It's probably best to just go to a local shelter.

all I can say is I'm so glad the deal feel through, I was trying to buy a chihuahua and made plans to meet the woman at my home, 1 hour before we were to meet the woman wanted to change time and date for Sunday when i said Sunday was not a good time for me she became rude, and started to make comments about me, saying I'm rude for not taking her deal and time. what a bad and frustrating experience this was. I'm just glad I did not give her money. I just had my feelings hurt but that's better than losing money! so unprofessional and I will never use this site again keeps your dogs and bad dealers.

PLEASE BEWARE OF PETFINDER!

My fiance and I have owned pets our whole life and have a lot of love to give however, after all the inquiries we made, we still don't have any movement the last few months from Pet Finder. Shame on them!

Why should it take months to do this. We both have stable jobs, with great salaries and we don't know why it's difficult.

Tom.

4130 Huckleberry drive

Center valley PA 18034

[protected]@GMAIL.COM

I adopted a puppy from canine crew rescue. The puppy was sick when we got him home and we later found out that several of the other puppies from the litter were sick with the same symptoms. After 4 trips to urgent care visits and we thought he was finally getting better. After he finished the last round of antibiotics he went down hill overnight. We ended up having to put the puppy down as he was in distress and suffering. When reaching out to Canine crew rescue to let them know we had to put him down, they told us they had done a swab on the puppies and got a diagnosis that they failed to share with us. If they had told us the puppy may still be with us. They said they would help with the vet bills since the puppy left them sick. We never received anything. Also after researching them more they have no 501c or license posted on any of their content/websites etc. the puppy also came from Texas and should have had all the travel/vet paperwork and he came with none of that. This “rescue” should be looked into and removed from petfinder.com

I applied for an Alaskan Malamute named Ren. Submitted to Lovable Mutts, also known as PDR, Pregnant Dog Rescue in Newfoundland PA.

Via email i was told he was mine and i could come up on Saturday for him. I was so elated and happy because i lost my boy on 04/11. Several emails back forth making arrangments. I even prepped here at home. I washed my boys bed! I was excited and shared his photo with family and friends. A few hours later, i got an email simply saying sorry, we emailed you by mistake, there is another app before you and they will be taking him. I was physically sick. Devastated does not measure. I puked. These two rescues (if one in same) do not have a facebook page. Apart from the cruelty of what they did to me, i now suspect if they are even real. And just post dogs to get peoples personal information. She even berated me via email. I have kept them all for record. You should investigate this and remove them from your site.

Laurie Dudash

I grew up in a house where we only adopted or rescued our animals. We ove them like they are our children.

I am an animal advocate and have worked with the ASPCA when I lived in N.J. which have the BEST animal rights.

I now live in S.C. that has NO animal rights.

I have contacted several Shelters on here and have never heard back.

Changingtomorrowanimalrescue has many kittens available, but their application is ridiculous. I spoke to the ASPCA which tld me to report them.

I found 2 kittens here in S.C., they were both spayed, they are indoor kitties, and they love me as much as I love them. I am home full time, and everyone would tell you how much I love animals. I just lost my Bella from old age and Callie who was her best friend is missing her soo much as I am. I have been spending extra attention with Callie because I know she feels the lost of Bella as I do. I am looking to adopt a kitten and giving it a forever home. WHY IS IT SOO HARD TO AOPT. I understand some people just should not have animals but someone like me suffers for their actions.

This is an unethical company that acts as a vendor for animal shelters to play games with people and create obstacles for animals to be adopted. One shelter says they pray for someone to adopt a specific dog then they refuse to respond to inquiries about the dog. Petfinder is complicit in this because they should require responses in a certain time frame if you want to use their service.

This is an issue that needs some legislation so I am going to start petitioning my local government officials to start pushing through laws to take away any non profit status or tax advantages from shelters that refuse to respond to people or create absurd unnecessary obstacles for adoption. They are essentially hoarders that feel nobody is good enough to adopt their dogs or cats.

Again, Petfinder is complicit in allowing this to occur in the first place and certainly in allowing it to continue.

when interested in a pet , me it’s a dog. it can be a real challenge to have anyone giving you answer or replying to email, text or calling.

I am 66 yrs old, I have no debt, own my own house with four acres and am assuredly more solvent than you. I have always adopted rescue dogs, have a stellar reference from my vet of 25 years. However because I have an underground fence, I live in an isolated rural area off a dirt road…that is one reason I can't adopt even though a shelter dog is put down every eleven seconds and you are not helping that. I also find it intrusive and rude that someone has to come and inspect my house. I have a B.A. degree but am not computer literate and wanted to actually speak to someone about adopting…NOT!
All the dogs in the shelter up here are pit bulls, which and I don't want, and there are no smaller dogs.
SO…thanks to you I ended up buying three fully paid for purebred dogs.: a $2, 500.00 Papillon, a $3, 000.00
Mini Golden Doodle, and a well loved but nutty rat terrier as well.
Thanks to you I will always buy purebreds again. In the past, many years ago, I adopted older dogs because I knew they were difficult to place. You really are too stringent with your rules and many dogs will needlessly die.

I have had this account for years at our Humane Society. Now with the same password it is refusing to let me on. It does not send me a new password and I have many animals to update. NO ONE has contacted me back. Just another problem with petfinder. The response is crickets. Adopt a pet is so much more organized. I cant even get on the site and have been the administrator for 20 years. No reply no help

This is fake. He keeps asking for personal information without giving me any details that I am asking for. It is a SCAM. Beware.

After being told I was ‘perfect' for Roxy, I waited patiently for a response. I filled out a 13 page application! I had my previous pets records sent to [protected]@outlook.com AND Petfinder.com. I sent invoices showing pet care of my previous pets. So, every 5-6 days, I texted them? Anything? ‘Sorry, very busy', she said three times! She went from warm to cold! Then came the horrible Texas winter storm. ‘We're busy because of the storm', she says. Finally, after waiting weeks to find out when I can go meet her and pick her up I go to my emails and find the link where they accepted my application for her and hit it and lo and behold. They gave my promised Roxy to someone else saying I didn't prove I had given my previous baby Heartguard. I sent invoices showing I purchased it, pictures of the boxes I still have of my previous baby's Heartguard. She refused to even answer me, and finally sent a short, terse note saying it wasn't enough info! She went from ‘you're great and Perfect for Roxy' to utter silence and giving her to someone else. I was treated horribly! Not only that now these people have enough info on me for a top security clearance. They have way too much of my information and they are not trustworthy. Do yourself a favor... Save yourself a broken heart and knives in your back and heart and deal with ethical people who return your calls, keep their promises and don't lie and steal massive amounts of your personal information. Especially [protected]@outlook.com at +[protected].

June 10, 2020

I have been going back and forth with [protected]@petfinder.com. I have asked for management or corporate to give me a call and discuss an issue we have currently been made aware of. We received an email from Quality stating that we could not charge an application fee from your site per Code of Conduct. So, we changed our application within your site and our Petfinder Pro account. Our business website remains with an application fee of $20. We charge this fee because we were getting inundated with FREE adoption applications (100's) that were frivolous and a waste of our volunteer resources time. We feel within our organization, that the $20 fee reduces the overload to serious inquiries only. Once we receive and application, the applicant is sent an email requesting the needed information and items to complete the application process. When they are not charged a fee, the apps just sit waiting on their needed documents. Once they sit for 2 weeks with no response we have to move them to inactive. We have never had an issue with any other organization because we charge this fee to deter frivolous apps. We also put the $20 app fee towards their adoption fee if they are approved. I am not understanding why if she changed our app for your site, why we would be removed from PetFinder. Thus, the reason I am wanting to discuss with management or a higher up. We have used your service since inception of SRGDRR which has been 8 years and because we are the largest Great Dane Rescue and Rehab in the United States with a huge volume we needed to find a better balance on the amount of apps we were receiving in whole. Again, we have no problem allowing the adoption apps from Petfinder being no charge. We just need to keep it on our business website. Please advise and do not send me back to Quality as they are refusing to discuss or even assist in escalating to management. Thank you and look forward to hearing back from someone. I was told there is no phone number to contact but mine is [protected] if someone can get use a phone and quit hiding behind a keyboard.

I just want to see chihuahuas. I'm looking for mine. I see more other bigger breeds. I get that no matter where I'm searching.. it doesn't seem to work for me no matter the devices I've killed looking for my chi.. when I click on the breed CHIHUAHUA is says NO SUCH BREED (aahhh) Pepper is almost 16yr old if still alive. I believe these system flaws are preventing me from finding her. if the site worked correctly for me maybe possibly I might have found her.. my heart hurts so bad. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. PLEASE HELP

No one at this site has any interest in finding homes for these animals. I question even if there are any animals. All they want you to do is give all your info on an application, and they refuse to give any info about the animals.
Put pictures of young animals that are not young any longer or they don't even exist. Claims that animals have been adopted but are still on there site.
Something is obviously wrong here. When you know you are interested in an animal, when you get the info that you need to make that decision that is when you visit the animal and if you click, then you fill out an application.
Not beore. This site and everyone involved in it, needs to go.

First, finding one on petfinder is a letdown for many people. We get our hearts set on one. There is a long waiting process. The rescuers crucify you. One said she can come to house to tell me where to put the litterbox. Seriously? I raised 4 children with animals. I think I know where to put it.
It's the same story all the time. "we know are cats best"! No transition for this one. That one kneads and hurts! It just doesn't seem like they want to give up these cats or dogs. They make it so difficult people are going to pet stores. They want adoptions, but it is hell with these people! I saw a great article written by a rescuer who looked at two sides of the fence. She went to a seminar and the speaker talked about questions on the applications making it difficult for people to adopt. The animals are not free! Adopting is $124 -$225 here in ct. If we have to pay that kind of money for a tabby I would think we will take care of it. Please I know they are cat lovers, but they are being ridiculous. Some are shacked up together and no individual attention or may never have one on one affection or attention! Many die in these shelter because they were never given a home! Please reach out to these people and let them know what we go through. I am 62 and am having this kind of difficulty? Ridiculous!

My husband and I interested in adopt dog, Pixie. I got email from adoption manager, said she's available. So I applied for adoption.
Pixie's foster mom, Ericka, texted me next day. We texted. She said she been busy with family etc and she was gonna text me with time, and place after last weekend. But I never heard from her so I texted her last Tuesday and told her I'm looking to adopt Pixie. I asked her if we can set up a time and place to see her please? But I never heard from her.. so I emailed to adoption manager. She never replied. Ericka texted me right away and said she felt she is not fit in my family. What she talk about? We never meet and she didn't come by my place to check out. I forwarded her link that whippets is ok with apartment as long as we take her to dog park for exercise daily. She blocked me! Ericka is scammer!

Hi my Name is Mayureee Neale my daughter wants a kitten/cat so badly but I can't find your phone number to contact you...! It only shows your email and you NEVER answer it :(
The cat we were looking at is Sebastian and he is a Birman cat.
Please just send us your phone number I've been look long at like 20 websites just for your phone number!
My email is [protected]@gmail.com.
Let me know ASAP