RescueGroups.org Adoptable Pet Finder by ZIP

RescueGroups.org brings together adoptable animals from thousands of shelters and rescues across the United States and Canada. This actor searches that catalogue the way a Petfinder-style site does — ZIP + radius, species, breed, sex, age, size, and temperament — then opens each animal's public page for the shelter contact, description, photos and personality flags.

It also looks up specific animals by ID and fetches rescue organizations by ID. No cookies, login, or API key are required. An optional free RescueGroups.org API key adds API-only fields and organization name search.

Modes

Mode	What it does
search (default)	Finds adoptable pets by ZIP/radius and the filters below
byAnimalIds	Fetches the animals whose IDs (or animal-page URLs) you paste
orgSearch	Fetches rescue organizations by ID; with an optional API key it can also search organizations by name

What you get per animal

• Identity: animalId, name, status, species, breedPrimary, breedSecondary, breedString
• Profile: sex, ageGroup, sizeGroup, sizePotential, colors, pattern, coatLength
• Temperament and care: isAltered, isHousetrained, isCurrentVaccinations, isMicrochipped, isDeclawed, isSpecialNeeds, isNeedingFoster, isCatsOk, isDogsOk, isKidsOk, isAdultsOk, isYardRequired, isCrateTrained, activityLevel, energyLevel, exerciseNeeds, groomingNeeds, indoorOutdoor, newPeopleReaction, obedienceTraining, ownerExperience, sheddingLevel, vocalLevel
• Story: descriptionText, descriptionHtml, adoptionArea
• Shelter: organizationId, organizationName, organizationAddress, organizationCity, organizationState, organizationPostalCode, organizationEmail, organizationPhone, organizationUrl
• Location: locationCity, locationState, distanceMiles (radius searches)
• Links and metadata: pictures[], pictureThumbnailUrl, sourceUrl, adoptionUrl, recordType, scrapedAt

With an optional API key the records can also include the API-only fields: searchString, rescueId, ageString, birthDate, isBirthDateExact, sizeCurrent, colorDetails, adoptionFeeString, distinguishingMarks, specialNeedsDetails, qualities, summary, organizationIds, locationCountry, and the full temperament set.

What you get per organization

organizationId, name, about, services, adoptionProcess, adoptionArea, address, city, state, postalcode, country, phone, email, url, facebookUrl, donationUrl, adoptionUrl, isCommonApplicationAccepted, sourceUrl, recordType, scrapedAt.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search, byAnimalIds, or orgSearch
apiKey	secret	–	Optional free API key; adds API-only fields and org name search
species	string	Dog	Full species list, or (any species)
breed	string	–	Breed name, e.g. Labrador Retriever (matches any breed in the animal's breed string)
sex	string	–	(any), Male, Female
ageGroup	string	–	(any), Baby, Young, Adult, Senior
sizeGroup	string	–	(any), Small, Medium, Large, X-Large
specialNeedsOnly	boolean	false	Only special-needs animals
goodWithDogsOnly	boolean	false	Only animals flagged good with dogs
goodWithCatsOnly	boolean	false	Only animals flagged good with cats
goodWithKidsOnly	boolean	false	Only animals flagged good with kids
needsFosterOnly	boolean	false	Only animals looking for a foster home
housetrainedOnly	boolean	false	Only house-trained animals
declawedOnly	boolean	false	Only declawed animals
postalCode	string	–	ZIP/postal code for a radius search; empty searches everywhere
radiusMiles	integer	50	Radius in miles (1–500; requests under 25 use 25, values between buckets round down, and requests above 200 use 200)
includeDetails	boolean	true	Open each animal's detail page (richer, slightly slower)
animalIds	array	[]	Animal IDs or page URLs for mode=byAnimalIds
organizationIds	array	[]	Organization IDs for mode=orgSearch
orgQuery	string	–	Organization name (needs the optional key) or a numeric ID / organization-page URL (keyless; legacy inputs supported)
maxItems	integer	50	Hard cap on emitted records (1–2000)

Example: dogs within 25 miles of Boston

{
  "mode": "search",
  "species": "Dog",
  "postalCode": "02108",
  "radiusMiles": 25,
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: senior cats, good with kids

{
  "mode": "search",
  "species": "Cat",
  "ageGroup": "Senior",
  "goodWithKidsOnly": true,
  "maxItems": 30
}

Example: one breed, nationwide

{
  "mode": "search",
  "species": "Dog",
  "breed": "Labrador Retriever",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: look up animals by ID

{
  "mode": "byAnimalIds",
  "animalIds": ["22514067", "22813117"]
}

Example: fetch a rescue organization

{
  "mode": "orgSearch",
  "organizationIds": ["6260"]
}

How it works

• Default, credential-free path. The actor reads the public National Pet Search toolkit pages (toolkit.rescuegroups.org), the same pages RescueGroups.org serves to any website visitor. Search pages return 24 animals at a time; the actor paginates until maxItems or the result set ends. Each animal's public detail page supplies the profile, shelter contact, description and photos.
• Optional API path. Paste a free RescueGroups.org public API key and the actor uses the official v5 JSON:API instead. It returns the same records plus API-only fields and supports organization name search. No key is required for any core mode.
• Filters are source-side. Species, breed, sex, age, size, ZIP/radius, special-needs, foster, house-trained, declawed and good-with filters are applied by the source, not discarded afterwards.
• Pagination is honest. The actor stops on maxItems, source exhaustion, or a short page — it never cuts a run short with a wall-clock timer.
• Empty values are omitted. A field the source does not expose for a particular animal is left out, never sent as null, "", [] or a placeholder.

FAQ

Do I need an API key? No. The default path needs no key, account, cookie or proxy. The optional key is free and only adds fields and organization name search.

Why is the radius rounded? The public search page offers 25, 50, 100 and 200 mile buckets. The actor picks the closest supported bucket: values between buckets round down, requests under 25 use the 25-mile minimum, and requests above 200 use the 200-mile maximum instead of widening to a nationwide search.

Why did a breed return nothing? Breed names are shelter-entered. Use the exact name from the RescueGroups breed list, optionally prefixed with the species (Dog: Labrador Retriever).

Are all adoptable animals included? The public search lists currently available animals. Most have photos, but a few listings show only a placeholder, so their pictures fields are omitted.

How fresh is the data? Every run queries the live source.

Is this affiliated with RescueGroups.org? No. This is an independent third-party actor using publicly available pages and, optionally, the public API.

Limitations

• The public search exposes 25/50/100/200-mile radius buckets; the actor rounds down, using 25 for smaller requests and 200 for larger ones.
• Age and size are single-choice filters on the public path (the source's own checkboxes support multiple values).
• Breed matching is exact after case-folding and matches any breed in the animal's breed string (primary or secondary); near-miss spellings return a clear status message instead of wrong results.
• Without an API key, organization lookup works by numeric ID only; organization name search needs the optional key.
• The source is US/Canada focused; most listings have photos, but some have no public photo and omit the picture fields.
• Some animals and organizations omit fields such as size, contact details, address or phone; those fields are absent from the record rather than guessed.