Technical problems on Petfinder spark widespread concern among animal shelters, rescues

Petfinder dealing with technical issues

Petfinder, a website that is commonly used to help rescue groups and shelters find homes for dogs and cats all over the country, is now dealing with some technical issues causing a lot of concern for shelters and local rescues. FOX 26's Randy Wallace explains.

HOUSTON - Petfinder is a lifeline for dogs and cats in search of their forever homes.

Petfinder technical issues causing widespread concern for animal shelters, rescues

Due to software issues, local rescue groups, like Three Little Pitties, are desperately trying to place about 1,000 animals in homes for Christmas.

Three Little Pities started in 2018 in the trunk of a car. It's now found homes for about 20,000 dogs and cats.

The non-profit is one of several area rescues and shelters that relies heavily on Petfinder to post photos of homeless dogs and cats that are shared all over the country.

Since the beginning of December, Petfinder has been dealing with technical issues that prevent rescues and shelters from posting pet photos.

The glitch is making it much harder to get animals out of shelters and into homes.

"We adopt out 250 to 400 animals a month, they come from Petfinder," said Jodi Leslie, Community Outreach Director for Three Little Pitties. "Now we are down to about five applications a week. It has hit us and other rescue groups really hard."

The other side:

Petfinder sent us this statement:

"Petfinder recently relaunched our technology platform to modernize our services and unlock new capabilities into the future. Unfortunately, the technical upgrades have resulted in some temporary technical glitches that our team is working diligently to resolve. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we make updates and feel confident we will be able to better serve our users with our new platform once they are resolved. Connecting pets with people is at the core of everything we do, and we sincerely apologize for the disruption this has caused our shelter and rescue partners and those searching for a new pet. We’re working with urgency and care to make things right and to support the life-changing connections that depend on Petfinder."