FAQ’s

PetMatch was set up as a limited company and not a charity as we did not want to be competing with animal rescues for donations. We aim to be an ally of animal rescues and shelters and relying on donations felt like we would be in competition with these organisations.

We do not charge our Rescue users any fees for creating a profile on the site or posting pet profiles, nor do we take any percentage of donations made or adoption fees paid.

As an animal rescue, shelter or charity, you can register for an account with PetMatch. In order to ensure that legitimate rescues, shelters and charities are using the platform, we perform some validations on your registration information prior to activating your account. Once confirmed, your account is activated and you can then proceed to update your profile with information about your rescue.

From your profile you can then create, manage and update profiles of pets in your care and ready for adoption, create fundraising and educational events that you are running and nominate yourself and/or one of your pets for a spotlight slot on our homepage.

If you are not currently in a position to adopt a pet yourself (or already have enough!) you can also spread the love by sharing profiles of pets with family and friends via the share functionality on each pets profile page.

You can also find out more about our Rescue Users, who they are, what they do and how you can support them.

We would also love you to connect with us on social media.

From our Homepage, or through the Cats or Dogs pages of the site, you are able to search for pets all over Ireland based on location and various criteria based on your circumstance.

You can see further information about animals that meet your search and then enquire about them through the pet’s profile page. The Rescue caring for that animal will respond to your potential adoption enquiry.

The adoption of pets is through the animal rescue, shelter or charity that has the animal in their care and follows the adoption procedures of that organisation.

If you successfully complete the rescue’s adoption process you and your furever friend live happily ever after.

For potential adopters, whilst not necessary to utilise the platform, you can create an account with PetMatch in order to avail of certain additional features including the ability to save certain animal profiles and to receive notifications of new pets which may meet your saved criteria. 

Rescue users must create an account profile in order to be able to create pet profiles on the site.

If you do not find a perfect Match when you search you can save your search criteria for the next time you are on the site or to receive notifications of potential new pets that may be a Match. These notifications can be managed from your personal profile. 

If you do not have a personal profile you will not be able to receive notifications however your search criteria may be saved on the site depending on your cookie settings. 

A pet’s current adoption status is visible from their profile and will be noted as either available or reserved. Whilst our Rescue Users try to keep this status as up to date as possible, we would ask that potential adopters remember that most rescues have a limited number of staff or volunteers and may be slightly delayed in updating this status.

Although a pet is reserved, you still may wish to see that pet in your potential search results and enquire in the event that the current potential adopters do not complete the adoption process with the relevant Rescue. Alternatively, you may opt to exclude reserved pets from your search results.

Oo exciting!! If you have found the pet for you, you can make an enquiry about that pet through their profile page. This enquiry goes directly to the Rescue that is caring for that pet. They will then be in touch with you about your enquiry and next steps.

All enquiries about pets on PetMatch go directly to the Rescue caring for that pet and they will be in touch with you about your request.

Not necessarily, enquiries about pets are not a guarantee that you will be successful in adopting the pet in question, you will need to complete the Rescue’s adoption process and there may also be other people enquiring about that pet.

No, enquiries about pets are not an obligation that you will adopt the pet in question. Out of respect for our Rescue users, however, we would ask that you only enquire about pets that you are genuinely interested in rehoming.

In order to ensure that the Rescue can best evaluate your suitability for a pet, the more information about your circumstances and lifestyle you can provide in your enquiry, the better. This information helps to ensure that the Rescue identifies the most suitable home for that particular pet and their needs and minimises any chance of a pet ending up back in a rescue.
Whilst you have the option to submit a short form enquiry on the site, please note that this may put you at a disadvantage where a Rescue has received a number of enquiries some of which may provide details that indicate a good match for that pet. In addition, as part of their adoption procedures, Rescues will require detailed information in order to be satisfied that the adopting home is suitable.

The Rescue will respond to you via the contact details you provided as soon as possible. Please remember, however, that rescue organisations are often constrained in terms of employee or volunteer numbers and so may require time to revert to enquiries made in relation to a specific animal. If you have not heard anything after a few days, please feel free to send an email to hello@petmatch.ie

There is no set frequency for the update of pets on PetMatch. The current pet profiles are all driven by the current pets in the care of our Rescue users that are ready for adoption. If you do not find a suitable Match when you are on the site, please revisit the site or alternatively save your search criteria to receive notifications of potentially suitable pets for you.

No, PetMatch does not own any of the pets listed on the site. All of these pets are cared for by the Rescue that has listed them for adoption.

As part of adopting a pet from a Rescue, you will be required to pay the adoption fee that they charge.

More details on this fee is available on the pet profile page or in the Rescue’s page. Typically these fees help cover the costs the Rescue has incurred in caring for these pets and their veterinary requirements such as vaccinations and microchipping.

You do not pay any fee to PetMatch as part of an adoption nor does PetMatch take any percentage of the Rescue’s adoption fee.

If you wish to meet the pet that you have found on PetMatch, you can send an enquiry to the Rescue to see if this can be arranged and a suitable time. Alternatively you can visit the Rescue’s own page (available through their PetMatch Rescue Page) and see if they have public opening hours for visiting.

The pets listed for adoption on the site are pets in the care of animal rescues, shelters and charities across the country. These pets can be in rescue for a wide variety of reasons and may be stray, surrended or abandoned pets that are in need of a new Furever home.

You are only able to list pets on PetMatch if you are a validated animal rescue, shelter or charity. Individuals selling pets or looking to rehome their pet are not able to list animals on this site.

No, Rescue accounts are subject to validations prior to being activated as a PetMatch user to ensure that they are legitimate animal rescues.

Our weekly spotlight section on our Homepage is to help provide extra visibility.  

The Pet of the Week is typically a pet that may be in rescue for a long time or need that extra bit of help finding their perfect Match. These pets can be nominated by their Rescues. 

The Rescue of the Week is also nominated and may be selected for a variety of reasons such as it being their anniversary, a particular news event or just because the work they do is awesome!

You can find out more about any of our Rescue users through the Rescue section of the site. This will give more information about rescues in different areas, the work they do, their adoption policies and how you can support them. 

Any donations made to Rescues are made directly to that Rescue. PetMatch does not collect or take any percentage of donations. 

Hey! Have you been reading our mind?? PetMatch is working on extending our site to include all types of pets and animals looking to be adopted, so stay tuned!

Wohoooooooooo! Congratulations and thank you for adopting! We would LOVE to hear your story so please get in touch and via the I Rehomed a Pet section of your account, via email (hello@petmatch.ie) or via our social media channels.