PetFinderReviews 353

We adopted a small dog from Peanuts Place last Fall. We live in a community that requires black aluminum fences. Within minutes of bringing home our dog, who was feral - she ran through the fence and was gone for 11 days. We searched every day, posted signs and put on social media. Eventually we got her back. But she was terrified of people, particularly children, and we have 3. She would hide behind the couch for hours. After months, we realized that things were not improving and gave her back to Peanuts Place. At the time, we were verbally promised that we would receive a refund. Although we realized that if we could secure a replacement dog from Peanuts Place, it would not be necessary, so we did not ask Colleen for a refund. We just trusted she would do the right thing. Last week we looked at 2 dogs from Colleen. But when we brought them to our home to meet our dog, who was as sweet as can be - one dog was hostile to our dog and the other nipped at our daughter. We kept looking and we found a sweet girl to adopt from another agency. When we contacted Colleen to get our refund, she told us that she never made that promise and only offered a replacement dog. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS AGENCY. COLLEEN DOES NOT DO THE PROPER SCREENING AND WAS DISHONEST WITH US. I hope this helps other looking for pets.

Waste of time using this site. It took 3 emails to get a response from the rescue responsible. The response was a very unprofessional call. After printing and returning the adoption application as instructed I still didn't get any response 3 weeks later. Tried to email Petfinders to complain and when I hit submit it does nothing. How can they honestly be trying to home these animals like this. Horrible, unprofessional, and total waste of time. Feel so sorry for the poor fur babies waiting for homes.

What is the point of asking for a city, zip code, and maximum distance from home to search when all of their animals are 'being fostered' in Texas or China? Many ads even state that animals will not be shipped to your state until 'pre-adopted'. Who adopts a dog without even getting to be in the same state with it first? ($695 transport fee) It's a sadly impersonal and disingenuous way to import dogs from Taiwan, based on nothing more than a photo.

Does anyone have a phone number and/or an email address for someone at Petfinder who can help us secure an account? Our shelter has been trying for more than 18 months to sign up and all we have for our efforts is a long email thread (to a general "info@" address) asking for more documents (501(c)3 registration, etc.). We don't know what the problem is with our registration and now they've stopped responding to our emails. Very frustrating to say the least

Sites like PetFinder.com are more like Craigslist for pet adoption than anything else. You are not adopting from the site, you are adopting from the advertiser. They just provide marketplace to find and to communicate with the pet advertiser. It's obvious that many people reviewing the site do not realize that, since the fail to identify the name of the organization(s) they are actually complaining about.

Both PetFinder and Adopt-A-Pet supposedly vette the organizations that advertise on the site, but their standards are not transparent and there are a lot of bad actors and wackos to be found. The only mechanism either provides for complaining about an organization is via email and that information is way too hard to find. This lets a lot of bad actors and wackadoodles stay in business and make pet adoption far more frustrating than it should be.

PetFinder (and all the pet adoptions sites) really need to provided a rating and review system like eBay, This would quickly identify the organizations to avoid and save people heartache and frustration.

They should also require a link to the adoption requirements and applications on the site.

If they were to do these two things, I believe the majority of the complaints posted here would have been avoided.

They should also require updating listings that a pet has been adopted within 24 hours of that occurring. I found some that had been adopted the previous week.

1st adaption experience. Works perfect. Good match. Really happy to celebrate Thanksgiving with new family Member "MISS ALABAMA" baby Bella B lab mix
Thank you for superior service provided!

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?)

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.

I just adopted a dog through Petfinder Two weeks ago. Purebred rescue of Florida's Hillary Donovan is running an undercover puppy mill. I adopted a Yorkie mix from Hillary and it died a week later after I got it. The dog had parvo and liver failure and nobody at the rescue said anything. Hillary told me that the dog was healthy and had been cleared by a vet, that's not the case. Hillary was a bad dog breeder once before and is most likely using the word adoption to hide the fact that she's running a puppy mill. She claimed that she didn't know the dog was sick and offered to give me a new one at no cost. The 2nd dog I got from her had the same thing. I called her and she blocked my number, I went to the shelter and how continent she wasn't there. I kept on coming back to the shelter until I found her and I demanded a REFUND. Hillary refused to refund my money, I paid $5,000 for that dog and want it back! Two dogs from her not even three weeks and they both died, I deserve a refund. I wont stop until I get my money back, if I have to sue her so help me I will. Three days ago I left the rescue bad reviews all over Facebook and all over google telling the world about what she did to me. That same day I left the reviews on their Facebook page the entire page was taken down. The next day all of their information on Google was completely removed to, how convenient. As soon as you leave bad reviews on them telling everybody about the way they treat people they cower out and remove their stuff so nobody-else can see it. Google used to be full of things about them and now you can barely find them unless you look very hard. Stay away from Purebred rescue of FL and stay away from HILLARY DONOVAN.

So we've been trying to adopt for a few months now however, by the time we find the dog on Petfinder, contact the right shelter, fill out their application and they do the reference checks and home visit the dog we wanted is adopted by someone else. This has happened three times, with three different shelters, each time with us filling out the paperwork and hoping that all the hurtles are cleared before someone else adopts the dog we're interested in. I think that by the time we finally find our pup, we will be "approved" by a 1/2 dozen or more shelters. I would think that this is a waste of resources for the shelters and that perhaps if Petfinder had a common application and they performed the reference checks (and home visit if necessary) that the adoptions would be faster and the mostly volunteer forces at the shelters can be freed up for other services. Just a thought as we anxiously await our fourth adoption inquiry.

I found a rescue group through petfinder.com called Purebred rescue of Florida. I had adopted a female gold dust terrier from them named Angel. I am not happy with them, I feel like I've been ''SCAMMED''. I sent a message the rescue about adopting one of their dogs three weeks ago. I asked them if I could meet the dog in person, they told me yes. I asked them for an address and they gave it to me, I drove to the shelter. When I got there and saw the dog, she looked very healthy. They gave me more information about the dog and told me that she was in great health. I went ahead and paid her adoption fee of $1,500 the same day. I brought the dog home and she constantly started vomiting. The dog stopped eating and got very weak, I took her to the vet the following day. The vet told me she had worms, I de-wormed her and I thought she was better, but apparently she wasn't. It turns out that she had ''PARVO, not once did the rescue mention that. The dog ended up being put down, I called the rescue and they wanted to act stupid like I was a liar. They basically called me a liar and told me she was healthy and did not have parvo. They refused to refund my money, they contacted the vet that put the dog down and called them liars too. I am looking forward to seeing them in court. I miss Angel so very much and want justice for her, that rescue knew she was sick.

''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.

I have inquired about dogs on this sight several times and never heard back from anyone other than somebody in Texas. It's a bit confusing to understand where these dogs actually are being fostered. I want to meet a dog before I adopt. I did get wise finally and just looked on the drop-down list of rescue organizations and shelters in my area and started looking there, but even then I still have gotten very few responses. These rescue animals need loving homes, so I don't understand the lack of responses. I would not recommend just browsing on Petfinder, if anything find your local rescue groups and go that route.

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.