Pet Adoption Scraper

Overview

The Pet Adoption Scraper extracts pet adoption listings from Petfinder, one of the largest online pet adoption databases. This actor collects comprehensive data about adoptable animals including dogs, cats, rabbits, and birds, providing structured information about breeds, ages, sizes, locations, shelter details, and adoption fees for pet search and comparison applications.

Features

• Scrapes pet adoption listings from Petfinder.com
• Filter by species (dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, and more)
• Search by specific breed and geographic location
• Extracts detailed pet profiles including photos and descriptions
• Includes shelter/organization contact information
• Supports pagination to collect large datasets of available pets

Input Configuration

The actor accepts the following input parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
species	string	dog	Type of pet: dog, cat, rabbit, bird, or other
breed	string	(empty)	Specific breed to search for (leave empty for all)
location	string	Dallas, TX	City and state to search near
maxResults	integer	100	Maximum number of listings to return

Output Format

Each pet listing in the dataset contains the following fields:

• name - Pet's name as listed by the shelter
• species - Type of animal (dog, cat, rabbit, etc.)
• breed - Primary breed or breed mix
• age - Age category (Baby, Young, Adult, Senior)
• gender - Male or Female
• size - Size category (Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large)
• location - Geographic location of the shelter
• shelterName - Name of the rescue organization or shelter
• photo - URL to the pet's primary photo
• description - Bio or description provided by the shelter
• adoptionFee - Listed adoption fee if available
• status - Adoption status (Available)

Use Cases

This scraper is useful for pet adoption aggregators, animal welfare organizations tracking adoption trends, researchers studying pet demographics across regions, and developers building pet search applications. It can help potential adopters find pets across multiple shelters and compare available animals in their area.

Data Quality

The scraper extracts data directly from Petfinder's listing pages, ensuring accuracy. Results include direct URLs to each pet's profile page for verification and to complete the adoption process through the shelter.

Limitations

• Data availability depends on Petfinder's current listings in the specified area
• Photos and descriptions are only available when provided by the shelter
• Adoption fees may vary and should be confirmed directly with the shelter
• Some shelters may not list all available animals online