Understanding Animal Fields

The fields listed in the tables below are available for you to use in adding adoptable animals.

An R indicates the field is required. All others are optional. P indicates the field is private to the organization.

Basic information

Field	Description
Name ^R	The animal's name is required. NOTE: We recommend that you do not add extra information to the name field (like ADOPTED or URGENT). The Other Names field can be used for nicknames or name changes.
Status ^R	Choose a status from the drop-down list. You can learn more about animal statuses in the Managing animal status section in this guide.
Summary	Enter a summary of the animal's description. The summary is a short description of the animal and appears at the top of the animal’s web page and in the Pet Adoption Toolkit. This is a text field.
Species ^R	Select the animal's species from the drop-down list.
Primary Breed	Select the animal's primary and secondary breeds after selecting the species. The primary breed is required for all species except dogs. See the section, Mixed or unknown breed in this guide.
Secondary Breed	Select the animal's primary and secondary breeds after selecting the species. The primary breed is required for all species except dogs. See the section, Mixed or unknown breed in this guide.
Has special needs	Tick the No, Yes, or Unknown radio buttons to indicate whether or not the animal has any known special needs.
Sex	Tick the Female, Male, or Unknown radio buttons to indicate the animal's sex.
Declawed	Tick the No, Yes, or Unknown radio buttons to indicate whether or not the cat is declawed.
Altered	Tick the No, Yes, or Unknown radio buttons to indicate whether or not the animal is altered.
Grooming needs	Tick the Not Required, Low, Moderate, High, or Unknown radio buttons to indicate the animal's need for being groomed.
Color (General)	Select the animal’s general color from the drop-down list. This value is sent to the adoption listing sites. Note that you must first select a species to see the species-specific list of colors.
Shedding amount	Tick the Moderate, None, High, or Unknown radio buttons to indicate the animal's propensity for shedding.
Pattern	Select the animal’s coat pattern from the drop-down list. Note that you must first select a species to see a species-specific list of patterns.
Coat Length	Select the animal’s coat length by ticking one of the radio buttons for Short, Medium, Long, or Unknown.
General Age	The General Age field is used by the adoption listing websites. Tick one of the radio buttons for Baby, Young, Adult, Senior, or Unknown to indicate the animal's general age range.
Description	Enter a description of the animal into the editor. For information about using the WYSIWYG editor, see the chapter Using the editor.
Physical qualities	Select from the boxes listed any physical qualities that are important for an adopter to know.

Personality and Behavior

Reason Not Housetrained	Enter the reason the animal isn't house trained (if applicable). This is a text field.
Energy level	Tick the appropriate radio button for Low, Moderate, High, or Unknown to indicate this animal's level of energy. Note: there is also an Activity level field later on the form.
Reaction to new people	Tick one of the radio buttons for Cautious, Friendly, Protective, Aggressive, or Unknown to describe the way this animal responds to new people in his or her environment.
Exercise needs	Tick the radio button that best describes this animal's need to be exercised: Not Required, Low, Moderate, High, or Unknown.
Requires a yard	Tick Yes, No, or Unknown to indicate whether this animal needs a yard.
Obedience training	Tick whether this animal (primarily used for dogs) needs obedience training: Needs Training, Has Basic Training, Well Trained, or Unknown.
Requires a home with fence	Tick the appropriate radio button for the type of fence required for this animal (generally used for dogs): Not Required, Any Type, 3 foot, 6 foot, or Unknown.
Likes to vocalize	Tick the radio button that best describes how much this animal vocalizes: (Quiet, Some, Lots, or Unknown).
Personality & Behavior qualities	Click one or more of the boxes to describe this animal's behavior or personality.

Compatibility

OK with cats	Tick one of the radio buttons for Yes, No, or Unknown to indicate if the animal behaves well around cats.
Good with adults	Tick one of the radio buttons for All, Men Only, Women Only, or Unknown to indicate whether this animal is good with adults and what kind of adults.
OK with dogs	Tick one of the radio buttons for Yes, No, or Unknown to indicate if the animal behaves well around dogs.
Owner experience needed	Tick one of the radio buttons to indicate whether this animal needs an owner experienced with that species or breed.
OK with kids	Tick one of the radio buttons for Yes, No, or Unknown to indicate if the animal behaves well around children.
Compatibility qualities	Click the buttons to indicate special compatibility issues this animal might have.

Administrative Information

Received Date ^P	This is the date that the animal entered your organization. This date is used by reports to calculate the amount of time an animal was in your organization. It’s also used by the Recent Animals special list. See Identifying special needs animals in this guide for more information. Use the calendar icons to select the date or type it into the text field.
Rescue ID	Enter your organization's public tracking number or identifier for this animal. Use your Animal Rescue ID Settings to have Rescue IDs automatically generated for your animals.
Internal ID ^P	Enter your organization's private tracking number or identifier for this animal. Note there is also a Rescue ID field.
Found	Was the animal stray/found? Found animals are uploaded to various lost and found websites. Note that this is a required field.
Up-to-date	Tick one of the radio buttons for Yes, No, or Unknown to indicate if the animal is up-to-date on its vaccinations.
Found Date	If the animal was found, on what date was the animal found? Use the calendar icons to select a date or type a date in the text field.
Foster	Select the animal's foster from the drop-down list of your fosters. You can add a new foster or manage your contacts by clicking the Add button. If you enable Public View for the caretaker/foster's Contacts record, the public will be able to contact the caretaker directly for more information about the animal. See the chapter Managing animal caretakers and fosters for more information.
Found zip/postal code	Enter the zip code or postal code for the area in which the animal was found.
Location	Choose the animal's physical location. This is the location of the animal right now, not the location where the animal was found. You can add a new location by clicking the Add button. See About Locations for more information.
Location public	If you want the public to be able to see the animal’s location, select the checkbox for Location Public. This setting must also be enabled in the list of enabled/disabled fields under Animals > Settings > Enabled & Disabled Fields Settings. Note that this is a required field.
Microchip number	Enter the animal's microchip number. This is a text field. Note that this is a required field.

Euthanasia Information

Euthanasia Date	Enter or select the date that the animal is scheduled to be euthanized or has been euthanized. Use the calendar icons or type in a date in the field.
Euthanasia Reason	Select the reason the animal will be euthanized, if applicable from the drop-down list of options.

Additional Notes and Comments

Special needs description	Enter information about the animal's special needs, if they have any. If you enter anything in the Special Needs box, the animal will appear on the Special List for Special Needs animals. You can learn more about Special Lists in the chapter Identifying special needs animals.

Custom Animal Groups Membership

Custom Animal Groups Membership	If this animal fits into any of your custom groups, the group name will display here, such as Kittens.

Media

Media Actions	This is where you can upload pictures and videos to the animal's web page. See the chapter How to add pictures and videos to animals pages for more information on this process. (We even have a video!)

Export Accounts Selection

Export Accounts ^P	You can select the specific FTP export accounts where you want this animal to appear. If you do not want the animal to be exported to any FTP account, click the Unselect link under the checkboxes.
Allow export	Tick Yes to allow this animal to be exported to API (including Toolkit) and FTP accounts. If you do not want the animal to be exported at all, click No.
Shared ^P	Tick Yes if you want to share this animal with your partners. Tick No if you do not. See the About Partnerships and Using the Network feature sections of the guide for more information.

Remember to click Save or Save and New or Save and Clone at the end of the page to save your work.

The animal header and footer are automatically added to the top and bottom of the animal’s description, respectively. The header and footer are used as an easy way to update animal descriptions on the adoption listings websites without editing each animal. The header and footer are also used on the animal’s web page with the Website service. The header and footer are great places to put basic information about your adoption process, special programs information or hints about your next event. See the chapter, Using the header and footer fields.

A note about fosters

One of the animal fields is Foster.

The foster’s contact information appears with the animal (if the information is set to public).
The animal will appear on the foster’s My Rescue page.
The animal will appear on the foster’s contact page

Animal contact information will appear on your website if you are using the Web Site Service. Contact information will appear in the animal’s description when exported to the adoption listing websites for all of our services.

The benefit of using the fosters field on your RescueGroups.org website is that visitors can contact the foster directly for more information about the animal.

To use fosters to their full potential, make sure you:

Select a foster for each animal.
Select the contact fields that will be public for your organization.
Make the foster’s information public.

You can add contacts from the Contacts page (link from the Admin page), or by entering a foster name in the new foster box when adding or editing an animal.