Petfinder Scraper

Search and extract adoptable pet listings from Petfinder.com — the largest pet adoption platform in North America with millions of animals available for adoption.

No API keys or credentials required. Works on the free Apify plan.

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What Does This Scraper Do?

This actor scrapes adoptable pet listings from Petfinder including:

• Pet profile: name, description, age, gender, size, color, coat length
• Shelter details: organization name, city, state, contact info
• Location: city, state, street address
• Photos: all available photos (S3 URLs)
• Attributes: house trained, special needs, declawed status
• Filters: search by type, breed, age, size, gender, organization

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Output Example

{
  "petId": "53ad58ff-2541-490f-9dd4-e71acad75214",
  "description": "Hi, I'm Gatsby! I'm a one-year-old lab mix...",
  "distanceMiles": 0,
  "shelterName": "Pep's Pals Rescue",
  "shelterCity": "Brookeville",
  "shelterState": "MD",
  "city": "Austin",
  "state": "TX",
  "imageUrls": [
    "https://npus-pr-petfusbbc-pdp-media-service-public-use1-sss.s3.amazonaws.com/animal/53ad58ff/image/d854f9c9.jpeg"
  ],
  "primaryImageUrl": "https://npus-pr-petfusbbc-pdp-media-service-public-use1-sss.s3.amazonaws.com/animal/53ad58ff/image/d854f9c9.jpeg",
  "url": "https://www.petfinder.com/animal-detail/53ad58ff-2541-490f-9dd4-e71acad75214/",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-01-15T10:30:00+00:00"
}

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
mode	Select	search — search by query + filters; byType — browse by animal type; byUrl — scrape a Petfinder search URL
searchQuery	String	Pet name to search (e.g. "Max", "Bella")
animalType	Select	Dog, Cat, Rabbit, Small & Furry, Horse, Bird, Scales Fins & Other, Barnyard
age	Select	Baby, Young, Adult, Senior
size	Select	Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large
gender	Select	Male, Female
breeds	Array	Filter by breed names (e.g. ["Labrador Retriever"])
colors	Array	Filter by coat colors (e.g. ["Black", "Brown/Chocolate"])
coatLength	Select	Short, Medium, Long, Wire, Hairless, Curly
houseTrained	Boolean	Only show house-trained pets
specialNeeds	Boolean	Only show pets with special needs
declawed	Boolean	Only show declawed cats
organizationId	String	Filter to a specific shelter/rescue (UUID)
startUrl	String	Petfinder search URL to scrape (mode=byUrl)
maxItems	Integer	Max number of pets to return (1–1000, default 20)

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Use Cases

• Pet adoption research — find available pets by type, breed, age and location
• Shelter analytics — track adoption listings across multiple shelters
• Pet breed research — find and analyze specific breeds available for adoption
• Non-profit outreach — build mailing lists or reports for animal rescue organizations
• Data journalism — analyze adoption rates, popular breeds, geographic distribution

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FAQ

Does this require an API key? No. This scraper uses the public Petfinder GraphQL API that powers the website itself.

How many pets can I scrape? Up to 1,000 per run. Petfinder has millions of listings available.

Can I filter by location? Currently the API does not expose location-based filtering in the public endpoint — use searchQuery with a city name or filter by organizationId instead.

Are photos included? Yes, when available. Photos are stored on Amazon S3 and the URLs are publicly accessible.

How fresh is the data? Data is fetched in real-time from Petfinder's live API.

What animal types are supported? Dog, Cat, Rabbit, Small & Furry, Horse, Bird, Scales/Fins/Other, Barnyard.