Limitations in exporting to Petfinder

There are a few limitations to what the Petfinder FTP allows us to upload. Most notably:

1. Videos and Video URLs will not add to your pets when you use the FTP upload. There will be no videos associated with your pets.
2. Petfinder does not allow any HTML in the animal descriptions. Any HTML will be removed from the pet descriptions.
3. Pet-specific locations will not be set. All pets will inherit the default account location.
4. Only pets with a sex selected will be imported. Pets without a sex selected will be ignored by the Petfinder import.

Here are the fields that RescueGroups.org currently uploads to Petfinder:

Rescue ID (optional), Animal Name, Primary Breed, Secondary Breed, Sex, General Potential Size, Age, Description, Species, Has Shots, Spayed/Altered, Status, No Dogs, No Cats, No Kids, Housetrained, Declawed, Special Needs, Mix, Photo1, Photo 2, Photo 3 

RescueGroups.org is working with Petfinder to increase the amount of information that is shared through the export process. We hope to announce more information soon.

You can log into Petfinder and manually add additional data besides the fields listed above to an animal listing in Petfinder, such as videos. Be aware that if you modify information that is already exported, like the description, it will be overwritten when the next export is processed. 

Setup your Petfinder Export

To set up your export to Petfinder and then import into their system:

1. Check that you have a shelter/group account with Petfinder, and that it is currently active. You can verify this by logging in at https://pro.petfinder.com/
2. While you’re logged into your organization's Petfinder account, make sure that your email address is listed in the Settings > Organization & Home Page section or shown as an Administrator under the Settings > Contacts & Access section.
3. In your Petfinder account, make a note of your Petfinder shelter ID#, found in the Pro Dashboard section of your account. It takes the form of a state abbreviation followed by a number, for example: NC987
4. Visit https://pro.petfinder.com/help-desk/ and enter all required fields:
   1. First Name
   2. Last Name
   3. Petfinder shelter ID
   4. Email Address
   5. Name of Shelter/Rescue
   6. Your City/Province
   7. For Subject, choose Import/Export, Pet Management Software
   8. In Message, provide your request. Here is a Sample Message:
      Please enable the import feature on our Petfinder account, shelter ID# [ENTER SHELTER ID].  We will be using RescueGroups.org to upload pet data. I understand that our Petfinder pet list will be removed and replaced with pet listings from our RescueGroups.org account.
      
      
5. When you receive a response from Petfinder help it will include your FTP account username and password. Forward that email to RescueGroups.org support. 
6. When we receive the FTP account information that you forward, we will configure your export to Petfinder. We will then contact you by email to let you know the export has been configured. This email will share instructions on how to enable the export within your RescueGroups.org account.
   
   

Petfinder Export Troubleshooting

1. If your Petfinder account is updating some but not all animal data, the issue may be with a specific animal record. For example, if you have not identified an animal as male or female, then Petfinder will not accept that animal data. Check the list of limitations in exporting to Petfinder first to see if the issue is an existing limitation.

2. Check the Petfinder site status page for outages and known issues that Petfinder is reporting. Occasionally, they may report issues on that site like the following examples:

   1. "Pictures not updating."  If Petfinder reports that pictures are not updating, you should not expect them to appear on the public pet list.  This affects your pets regardless of whether you are using RescueGroups.org to update your Petfinder pet list.

   2. "Pets not updating.  Search is out of sync, no updates."  You may or may not see your pets on the public pet list when Petfinder is reporting an issue related to "pets not updating."

3. Log into your organization's Petfinder account. Do your pets and pictures appear there? If so, the upload from RescueGroups.org ran correctly, but the Petfinder system has not updated their "public" pet list. Sometimes, processing animal data takes awhile on their end. If it has been over 36 hours with stale data on your public page, but the correct animals listed in your organization account, please contact Petfinder support.
4. If your Petfinder Pet List is not in sync and new animals are not being added:
   
   1. Verify that your Petfinder export is still enabled in your RescueGroups.org account by going to Animals > Exports.
   2. Verify that your Petfinder Automatic Pet Importing setting is still set to ON. If your Petfinder account is no longer set to Automatic Pet Import, we recommend that you reconfigure your Petfinder account to again allow uploads from RescueGroups.org. You may also want to bulk delete your Petfinder animal list as it may be out of date. If your RescueGroups.org export is still enabled, a bulk delete will soon be repopulated with clean data when RescueGroups.org next performs an automatic upload. You can perform a bulk delete from your animal admin page in your Petfinder account by clicking Select All and then updating the status to Deleted.
5. Still experiencing issues? Contact RescueGroups.org support for assistance. If you open a support ticket with us concerning animals that are missing, or animals that have not yet been taken off of the Petfinder list, please include specific examples of pets that are missing from your Petfinder admin pet list, have not been removed from your Petfinder admin pet list, or have missing pictures.

Common issues you may experience when trying to update your Petfinder pet list

1. Pets on Petfinder have not been updated or added:
   1. Check the Petfinder "help" page to see if they are reporting any known issues, like pet lists not being updated, slow logins, denied logins, or pictures not being updated.
   2. Make sure the pet(s) have the Petfinder account selected under Export Accounts.
2. Pictures are missing on specific pets or are in the incorrect order:
   1. Petfinder does not provide the ability to change a pet's picture once one has been added.  So, if your pet has 2 pictures already, they will never change.  You can add a third picture, but the previously added pictures will never change.
   2. The easiest way to get a pet's pictures to update is to delete that pet from your Petfinder admin pet list.  The next time your data is uploaded from RescueGroups.org a new copy of that pet will be added, and the current pictures should be added by Petfinder.

Unexpected exports by Petfinder to third party websites

Petfinder sends your pets to an undocumented number of websites, including classified websites like eBay and Kijij.  RescueGroups.org does not have any control over those uploads from Petfinder.

To check to see if your pets are being sent to that unknown list of websites, do the following:

1. Log in to your organization's Petfinder account.
2. Click on the Organization Info tab.
   
3. At the bottom, you will see check boxes for Partner sites and Petfinder API Users.

We believe that eBay and Kijiji are in the "Partner sites" category.

Please remember that RescueGroups.org tells you who has access to your public information.  You can control your exports from the Animals > Exports page, but we are not responsible for any additional sharing, or how that sharing is managed.