PawBoost For Shelters FAQs
How does the PawBoost shelter integration work? Find answers to common questions below.
General FAQs
- What is the purpose of the integration and how does it work?
- Is there an operating charge?
- Does the integration require any extra work from shelter staff?
- Do you have access to a patron’s personal information?
- What animals appear on PawBoost?
- What specifically triggers them to appear on PawBoost?
- What if a photo isn’t uploaded right away? Or if multiple photos are uploaded?
- Why are non-stray pets showing up on PawBoost?
- Are strays posted to Facebook?
- When are they removed from PawBoost?
- How long do they remain searchable on PawBoost, and what would cause them to be removed?
- What happens if a stray’s status isn’t updated in a shelter’s system?
- How is the location determined for strays?
- What is the point of contact for strays on PawBoost?
- Is there an administrative component to the PawBoost platform for shelters?
- Is there any sort of reporting ability?
- Is there a tutorial or training offered for shelters?
- What do I do if my shelter switches shelter software?
- What do I do if there is an immediate need to connect with someone from PawBoost?
- What is the difference between PawBoost and Petco Love Lost?
Petpoint Specific FAQs
Shelter Buddy Specific FAQs
Shelterluv Specific FAQs
General FAQs
What is the purpose of the integration and how does it work?
The PawBoost integration increases return-to-home at large municipal shelters by raising more local awareness for stray intakes. Stray intakes at integrated shelters are automatically added as ‘Found/Stray’ pets to our lost & found database, which gets 1M+ hits per month. The configuration for what is considered a ‘stray intake’ can be customized based on the shelter.
Is there an operating charge?
There is no operating charge, we have partnered with shelter software companies to make this integration available to shelters for free. We know shelters have limited funds, so we want it to always be free to participate.
Does the integration require any extra work from shelter staff?
No, once the integration is set up everything happens automatically, with no extra work required.
Do you have access to a patron’s personal information?
We take privacy very seriously, and we are fully GDPR compliant. We only collect the data necessary to spread the word about a lost or found pet, and we only use the data for that purpose. Our Privacy Policy outlines exactly what data we collect, how and why we collect it, and how it is used. It can be read here: https://www.pawboost.com/site/privacy-policy
We will only be sharing the necessary data to help find the stray pet’s owner including: photo, sex, species, date found, area found, and description (if available). We are not granted access to the patron’s personal information.
What animals appear on PawBoost?
Stray intakes at your shelter will appear in our lost & found database. Animals listed as surrendered, lost pet reports, or pets with other statuses will not appear on PawBoost.
What specifically triggers them to appear on PawBoost?
Our system will check to see if any new pets have been added/updated/removed to the stray hold feed for your shelter every 1-2 hours. If a new pet is detected, it will be added to our lost & found. If a pet is updated (for example, if a photo is added), the pet will be updated in our lost & found as well.
If a pet’s intake date is more than 90 days ago, or if a pet hasn’t been updated in more than 90 days, it will not appear on PawBoost regardless of pet status.
What if a photo isn’t uploaded right away? Or if multiple photos are uploaded?
If a photo isn’t uploaded right away for a stray it will not be listed in our database. Only one photo is used so we’ll use the default photo.
Why are non-stray pets showing up on PawBoost?
Feeds are supposed to be configured so that we’re only getting the right ‘found’ pets. There might be an issue with the way the feed is configured if non-strays are showing up, please contact your shelter software’s customer support.
Are strays posted to Facebook?
Yes, a daily post featuring new stray intakes is shared to your local PawBoost Lost Pets Facebook community.
When are they removed from PawBoost?
If a pet is no longer in your feed of pets on stray hold – for example, when the pet is reclaimed or adopted – the pet will be removed from our lost & found.
How long do they remain searchable on PawBoost, and what would cause them to be removed?
Pets will only be searchable if they are currently in your feed of pets on stray hold (internally, we call this status a ‘shelter stray’). If they are removed from your feed, they will be removed from our lost & found and will no longer be searchable on PawBoost. If somebody attempts to access a link to a pet that has been removed, they will be redirected to our general lost & found.
What happens if a stray’s status isn’t updated in a shelter’s system?
If a stray’s status isn’t updated to another outcome status then the stray will remain on PawBoost.
How is the location determined for strays?
The actual geo-location we set for strays is the zip code the shelter is located in; in other words, all pets associated with a given shelter will share the same location. The reason we do this is because the jurisdiction field often gets misinterpreted by our location services (powered by Google).
What is the point of contact for strays on PawBoost?
Inquiries about shelter strays are directed to the organization’s preferred contact email, phone, or both. We create a PawBoost email for each pet with a unique Pet ID that relays the messages to your email address.
Is there an administrative component to the PawBoost platform for shelters?
Adding and removing shelter strays that appear on PawBoost happens automatically when the pet is updated in the shelter’s software. The strays are not managed directly in PawBoost. We can provide a link where you can see all the pets currently listed as ‘found/stray’ from our integration to ensure the proper pets are appearing on the site and being removed when appropriate.
Is there any sort of reporting ability?
Currently, there are no reporting capabilities. If this is important to our shelter partners, we can consider adding it to the feature roadmap.
Is there a tutorial or training offered for shelters?
Yes! We put together a blog post for shelters that includes a video to help educate your staff on PawBoost and how the integration works. Please reach out to the shelter-support@pawboost.com email address with any further questions.
What do I do if my shelter switches shelter software?
Please reach out to shelter-support@pawboost.com stating which software your shelter has switched to and a PawBoost team member will assist you.
What do I do if there is an immediate need to connect with someone from PawBoost?
For any questions or support requests that do occur, please reach out to this dedicated support email for our shelter partners: shelter-support@pawboost.com
What is the difference between PawBoost and Petco Love Lost?
PawBoost takes a community-centric approach to reuniting pets. We are the most used reunification tool by the public with 2k+ pets posted per day, we have the most reunions with over 1.9 million to date (compared to less than 100k for Petco according to their latest press release), and we are the only service with a network of 7M+ pet lovers who have signed up for lost pet alerts.
PawBoost Alerts are seen by over 50 million unique people every month across Facebook, Nextdoor, email, and the PawBoost website and mobile app. Our huge network of pet lovers is what makes PawBoost unique. And, it’s what makes PawBoost so effective: Our reunited rate for lost pets – based on real outcome data from the 700k+ lost & found pets reported every year – is almost 50%, the highest reunited rate in the industry by a wide margin. When it comes to lost & found pets, the scale and impact of PawBoost is unmatched.
Importantly, the public almost always posts the lost or found pet to PawBoost before the pet gets taken into the shelter. This makes PawBoost particularly effective at intake diversion compared to other platforms – like Petco Love Lost – that primarily rely on the animal entering the shelter in order to be reunited.
Partnering with PawBoost and partnering with Petco Love Lost are not mutually exclusive. You can – and many shelters do – partner with both organizations.
Petpoint Specific FAQs
Why is my data not getting imported, even though PawBoost says it is set up?
The animals need to be in a specific intake group (Intake Type) and the Lost/Found feed has to be configured to include these types. If this is not set up correctly, we cannot import them and we recommend contacting Petpoint directly for help.
Shelter Buddy Specific FAQs
What are search groups?
The animals that show up in our feed are dictated by what Shelter Buddy calls ‘search groups’. A search group is essentially just a set of statuses grouped together in a single feed. The statuses that show up in a given search group can be configured by Shelter Buddy.
Shelterluv Specific FAQs
Can the address found be displayed?
Currently, the address found is not in the Shelterluv API, but we are requesting this be added in the future.
Is PawBoost able to pull attributes or only statuses?
We are not able to pull attributes at this time, only statuses.
Have other questions? We’re here to help 365 days a year. Ask away at shelter-support@pawboost.com.