Gypsy Rescue Transport design: coordinating with rescues/attracting participation

Sorry I've been slacking on this project for so long, a bunch of work came down my day-job pipeline, and it has all but consumed me.

Sooo... back to this thing... picture this: a one-stop list of all Shelties in PetFinder.com (optionally filtered to just purebreds) that are being held by kill facilities.

In and of itself, wouldn't what I have described above be a useful and time-saving thing? Wouldn't it be nice to know that all of the Shelties in PetFinder were accounted for, from a single page? Wouldn't it save a great deal of potentially duplicated effort, compared to using PetFinder.com as is?

In short, is it something you rescue Sheltie heros would be likely to use? I'd appreciate your feedback either way. If it would be useful, I'm all in, but if not I'd just as soon save myself the time and energy.


Thanks for reading,
Mark

(additional details to follow...)


 
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As it turns out, PetFinder.com has a published application program interface (API) which is basically a sanctioned way for third-party developers (like me) to utilize their data! This will make it much easier to create and maintain a single list of all Shelties that are in PetFinder (without the distance limit), with option to filter to those listed as purebred.


And with a little help from users, we can eventually filter it to just those that aren't in no-kill facilities. I think we can safely assume any entity with the word "rescue" in its name is no-kill. I'm not sure what can be assumed about those with "SPCA" in their names, but something, I'd expect. And negative assumptions could be made when "pound", "city", "county" and/or "animal control" occur in the name. From there the facilities in question would need to be manually researched and flagged -- something of a PITA, I agree, but those flags would be retained for use whenever they come up again, so a little time invested will yield a lot of collective time saved.


In addition, for any given dog, it will return a list of rescues within [number of] miles, with option to show a map.


Some of my other ideas might be integrated from there, but, in and of itself, wouldn't what I have described above be a useful and time-saving thing? Wouldn't it be nice to know that all of the Shelties in PetFinder were accounted for, from a single page? Wouldn't it save a great deal of potentially duplicated effort, compared to using PetFinder.com as is?



From here it gets even more technical... The PetFinder API that's the cornerstone of my plan is called api.petfinder.com/shelter.listByBreed. It returns a list of shelters that currently house one or more animals of the requested breed. From that list I can query by zipcode for each shelter in the list, for a list of Shelties, and from there I can get all details for each in the lists (after weeding out any duplicates returned.)


I'd probably query PetFinder for lists once or twice a day, but might want to get animal details more frequently, maybe with option for the user to request a realtime refresh. (I'm not sure how timely that data is.)


The bad news is that I have successfully tested all of PetFinder's APIs *except* shelter.listByBreed, which seems to be broken at the moment, but the good news is I am in touch with PetFinder, they say they're looking into it, and presumably it'll be fixed soon enough. If they will commit to making it work (or point out what I'm doing wrong, if that's the case) I'll start putting the infrastructure together.
 
Mark it is amazing how much you have gotten done. I think this sounds like a great way to do things, hopefully petfinder can sort out their problem soon. Thanks again for all your hard work and dedication to all the homeless Shelties out there.
 
corbinam said:
Mark, I think what you are proposing is a great idea. Knowledge is power only if it's shared, and that's often a limitation of a rescue.

I just wanted to share a link that I saw on FB from a local sheltie rescue.

I wonder if this is similar to what you are proposing? http://nmhpnetwork.bestfriends.org/...ral+ohio+sheltie+rescue#.T6m0PIFm-Ds.facebook

I have to admit to being tired, as I just got home, and I have not had time to read all about this website.
Click to expand...

They're doing so many things it's hard to be sure, but I don't think they're doing what I have in mind. But thanks for the link, always good to be abreast of other ongoing efforts. :yes:


-Mark
 
Going through petfinder under shelties I find a lot of purebred shelties are called sheltie mixes and many shelties are really mixes. To know for sure you have to look at every one. Even then I still contact a rescue if it is questionable. Dog pounds have come up with nice sounding names too. Shelter or animal care facility to name two. I like your idea but still feel you really have to see a picture of each dog to know if it is a sheltie or a mix. I don't think a program can do that. The sheltie rescue groups know about many of their rescues before they are out on petfinder or pet harbor. I still am trying to figure out how you can help the rescue groups because they are the ones who get the dogs. Your enthusiasm is refreshing.
 
Danny's mommy said:
Going through petfinder under shelties I find a lot of purebred shelties are called sheltie mixes and many shelties are really mixes. To know for sure you have to look at every one. Even then I still contact a rescue if it is questionable.
Click to expand...

I agree, the listing data is only going to be as accurate as is the person who entered it, and in most cases those folks are likely guessing. That's why I'm making it an option to view mixes too.

Danny's mommy said:
Dog pounds have come up with nice sounding names too. Shelter or animal care facility to name two.
Click to expand...

Yep, only so much can be gleaned from the name, there are also rescues that don't have "rescue" in their names. So when in doubt a facility will be assumed to be kill until/unless a user flags it otherwise.

Danny's mommy said:
I like your idea but still feel you really have to see a picture of each dog to know if it is a sheltie or a mix. I don't think a program can do that.
Click to expand...

If I could write code to do that I wouldn't be hanging out in forums, I'd be living on my own island in the south pacific. :lol: My page will include the same pictures found in the PetFinder listings. (Links to images are included in the data returned.)

Danny's mommy said:
The sheltie rescue groups know about many of their rescues before they are out on petfinder or pet harbor. I still am trying to figure out how you can help the rescue groups because they are the ones who get the dogs. Your enthusiasm is refreshing.
Click to expand...

Well, I've set aside helping them directly for the moment, instead focusing on helping people like you, that search PetFinder for Shelties in need of rescue. If I can do that successfully I'll be in a very good position to try out my other ideas. If I can't, the point behind those other ideas is moot anyway. :yes:
 
Ok friends I have a little something to show you, go to http://www.gypsyrescuetransport.com/BrowseShelties.aspx, click on the Browse Shelties menu button if it doesn't take you there, and take a look...

It's still a good ways off of finished, but as it sits it offers you several things you don't get on the regular petfinder site:

1. It lets you filter mixed breeds.
2. You can filter dogs held at rescues and other no-kill facilities.
3. You can sort the listing 3 different ways, by location (state, city), by dog's name and by the last updated date (in descending order.)


Soon users will be able to flag dogs in petfinder as 'watched' and there will be a page that displays only those 'watched' items. I'll also be adding an option to show only items that are more recent than your last visit.

In short, it's on the verge of becomming useful, so take a look if you have a minute. :yes:


-Mark


More info:

Mixed breed filter:

When the 'Show Mixed Breeds' checkbox is clear it's the most restrictive, only dogs listed as not mixed breed are included. When the 'Show Mixed Breeds' checkbox is checked but the 'primary breed' checkbox is clear, it's the least restrictive, it includes all dogs with sheltie in their breed list. And when 'primary breed' is checked it only includes dogs with Sheltie first in their breed list.

Kill vs no-kill:

I have imported about 12,000 shelter records from petfinder. If the word 'rescue' occured in a shelter's name, it was flagged as no-kill (there are 5064 of these on file.) If the name contained 'pound', 'animal control', 'city' or 'county' it was flagged as kill (533 of these on file.) The rest (6412 of them) are flagged unknown.

There is another field that indicates where the kill/no-kill designation came from, the ones noted above say 'assumed from name'. Very soon users will be able to edit this designation, which will make for 3 more possible values, 'educated guess', 'personal knowledge' and 'reference' (the latter to include a link to policy statement or stats.)
 
All I can say is, wow. It seems very useful, and user-friendly. My only comment is, perhaps it is better to have the location at the top rather than the bottom? I guess if you filter by location it won't matter but most people would look for that first thing.

I can't imagine how much work and time this is taking and I salute you for your efforts. This should be so helpful. Danny'smommy is probably the best person to comment on it since she scans all the Petfinder ads constantly.

Thank you from all the Shelties in shelters.
 
This is absolutely fantastic!

Thanks so much for taking the time to create this site. I am amazed at what a fantastic job you have done.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart.

Dani
 
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