MOUNT VERNON — Knox County Animal Shelter, Mount Vernon, recently joined other animal welfare organizations in the area that list their homeless pets on Petfinder.com, the oldest and largest database of adoptable animals on the Internet. The site currently has 301,000 homeless pets listed, and it is updated continuously.
Nearly 13,000 animal welfare organizations in the United States, Canada, and other countries post their pets on the site. Knox County Animal Shelter Rescue pets can be viewed at http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/OH799.html. A potential adopter enters search criteria for the kind of pet he or she wants, and a list is returned that ranks the pets in proximity to the ZIP code entered. Adoptions are handled by the animal placement group where the pet is housed, and each group has its own policies.
Petfinder.com was created in early 1996 as a grassroots project by Jared and Betsy Saul to end the euthanasia of adoptable pets. Since its inception, the site has facilitated approximately 15 million adoptions, making it the most life-saving initiative in animal welfare.
Petfinder sponsors are The Animal Rescue Site, Bissell Homecare Inc., a manufacturer of home cleaning and floor care products, PETCO, a national pet supply retailer that sponsors in-store adoptions, and Merial, maker of the number one veterinary-recommended flea and tick preventative Frontline and heartworm preventative Heartgard.
