Editorial Policy

PetAdoptNow is an advertising-supported informational website. The trust of our readers — adopters, shelter staff, and foster families — is the basis of the service. This Editorial Policy describes how we produce content, where our information comes from, how we use AI, how we separate editorial from advertising, and how to ask us to correct an error.

1. Content categories on PetAdoptNow

• Adoptable-pet listings— aggregated daily from third-party shelter-management platforms, with each pet’s description generated by AI from structured facts.
• Shelter and hospital directory entries — sourced from public records and shelter-management platforms and reviewed for obvious errors before publication.
• Breed reference pages — dog breeds referenced against the American Kennel Club standard; cat breeds referenced against The International Cat Association.
• Pet-name reference pages — sourced from public-domain naming references and our own curation.
• Pet-care articles — long-form guides on adoption, behavior, feeding, health, and training, with citations to authoritative sources.

2. Sources we rely on

2.1 Pet listings

Currently sourced from 24petconnect (operated by HLP Inc. / Pethealth Services), ShelterLuv, and RescueGroups.org. Each listing on the Site retains a deep link back to the source organization’s own page, which is the canonical record for that animal.

2.2 Pet-care articles

For factual claims about veterinary care, nutrition, and behavior, we cite or refer to: the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), the Association of Shelter Veterinarians, the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine notices, and other primary sources. Where a piece relies heavily on a particular source, we link to it.

3. How we use AI

3.1 Pet descriptions

Each pet’s short description on its detail page is drafted with AI assistance from the factual information we receive about that pet (such as species, breed, age, gender, and source- shelter location). The drafting process is constrained so the output stays grounded in those facts, does not invent specific behavioral claims, and does not republish narrative text from the source. Descriptions pass through automated quality checks before publication; anything that doesn’t meet our standards is reworked or falls back to a minimal factual statement.

3.2 Pet-care articles

Pet-care articles are drafted by human contributors with subject-matter knowledge, may use AI for outlining or language polish, and are reviewed for factual accuracy against cited sources before publication. They are not generated end-to-end by AI.

3.3 Disclosure

We disclose our AI use here so readers can evaluate descriptions and articles accordingly. See our Disclaimer for the limits of AI- assisted content.

4. Accuracy and currency

We refresh pet listings daily and run a verification pass over previously-listed pets to detect those that have been adopted or removed from the source. Pets adopted at the source are flagged on our Site within 24 hours; pages remain available with an “Adopted” banner for up to 30 days, then redirect to a relevant breed or species listing.

Articles include a publication date and, where revised, an updated date. When an article is materially revised, we note what changed.

5. Separation of editorial and advertising

We accept advertising (currently delivered by Google AdSense) but advertisers have no influence on which articles we publish, which shelters we list, or how we describe pets. Editorial content is never created or modified to favor an advertiser. All advertising is clearly labeled as such — see our Advertising Disclosure.

6. Corrections

We welcome correction requests. If you find an error in a listing, an article, a breed page, or any other content, please contact [email protected] with the URL, a description of the error, and (if possible) a citation to the correct information. We aim to review and respond within 5 business days. Substantive corrections to articles are noted at the bottom of the article with the date and nature of the change.

7. Originality and plagiarism

We do not knowingly publish plagiarized work. Editorial contributors confirm that submitted material is original or properly licensed and cite quoted material. Pet descriptions generated by AI are not, by themselves, plagiarism, but we monitor them for excessive lexical overlap with source shelters’ own descriptions and regenerate any that would constitute reuse of third-party expression.

8. Content we do not publish

We do not knowingly publish:

• Material that promotes cruelty to or commercial exploitation of animals;
• Personal information about adopters or shelter staff;
• Unsubstantiated medical, behavioral, or nutritional claims;
• Material designed to mislead, defame, or harass an identifiable person or organization;
• Content that violates applicable law.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this Editorial Policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page indicates when changes were last made.