BYRON CENTER, Mich. — Focus on Ferals, a non-kill shelter in my Byron Center neighborhood, recently reached out to me about a glitch with Petfinder, a database used by over 14,000 shelters nationwide, that's causing trouble with the adoption process.
The glitch has caused error messages, loading issues, and cats from around the country showing as available at Focus on Ferals, even though they are not at the shelter.
All of this, making the adoption process more challenging for neighbors like Stephanie Schillaci to find that fur-ever friend.
"They kind of got attitude, you know," said Schillaci, "So, I could just kind of vibe better with cats than dogs."
Schillaci already has a cat at home, but was ready to find cat number two, so she turned to Focus on Ferals.
"I was cruising on the website, and I found a couple cats that I thought were super cute and sweet, and I was like, 'Okay, I want to meet these cats.'" Schillaci said.
However, the shelter reached out to her with a problem, explaining that the cat Stephanie wanted was not even at their location.
Volunteer Amanda Brand says over the last month, the Petfinder database has been causing issues with the adoption process at the shelter.
"We have adopters, or potential adopters, who are reaching out and asking about cats that we don't even have," Brand said. "Cats they see on our website, that are put there by Petfinder. But it's a bug,"
Brand says they're also not able to add new arrivals to Petfinder.
"We have it so that every new cat should be posted to Petfinder. Unfortunately, because we're not having these cats posted to Petfinder, people aren't able to find these very adoptable cats and kittens," Brand said.
I reached out to Petfinder to share the concerns of Focus on Ferals. I was then able to connect the two, and Petfinder tells me they are now working with the shelter to find a solution.
This all comes during the holiday season, when Brand says adoptions should be on the rise.
"We've had some really stellar months in terms of adoptions, like nearly 40, up to 50 over the past couple months," Brand said. "And this month we're going to do maybe half that."
Stephanie says the website being down was a struggle, but she still has her heart set on finding her next fur-baby.
"It's kind of a bummer that the website wasn't working right up. But she (Brand) was super great in giving me a list of cats that I could get." Schillaci said.
Focus on Ferals is asking neighbors to be patient as they work through this issue. They're posting updates of new arrivals on their Facebook page in the meantime.
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