Scraping the Petfinder API
IMPORTANT UPDATE ON 2024-04-30
The Petfinder Developer Portal API Key Page appears to have been taken offline suddenly with no explanation. This link is broken from the Petfinder Developer Portal.
Alternative Scraping Solution
Until their service is restored, we suggest using the HAR File Web Scraper to scrape search results for adoptable pets from the Petfinder Search Feature as explained below and the video featured on this page.
1. Browse Petfinder Search Results
Go to Petfinder and enter a search for the animals you’re interested in. You can use any filters you’d like. Once the results load, right click on the browser and hit inspect to open up developer tools to begin recording your web traffic. Now refresh the page to load the 1st page of results into your browser while you’re now recording.
Scroll down and click next to browse through all of the search results until you scroll through as many listings as you need.
2. Export a HAR File
When you’re done browsing through results, click the down arrow under the “Network” tab in developer tools to download a HAR file containing the raw data of the animals. Then upload that file to the HAR File Web Scraper and look for the following group ending in /search/.
3. Download Animal Data
You should see a collection named result › animals in the results you can download the combined data for. It will include a lot of information on each animal.
Using the API (No Longer Available as of 2024-04-30)
If you’re building an app or doing some research and need data about animals up for adoption, then look no further than Petfinder’s Official API, which allows you to easily access all of Petfinder’s public data that’s available through its website. You can use the API to form searches for pets within a single location and collect back a rich amount of data for each animal, including photos and details about the adoption (e.g. where the pet is available, how long they’ve been up for adoption, etc…).
Animal Adoption Agencies
The “Animals” API endpoint will also return contact information for the organization listing the animal as adoptable. If you run an animal shelter or related service, this contact and organization data can prove useful for performing relevant outreach or just general market research on which animals are up for adoption and where.
Why Scrape Petfinder
If you’re building your own application and need real time or interactive access to the adoption data, then you can use the Petfinder API directly. For example, you can build a local map application that augments results with pets that are available locally using the JSON data that the API sends back.
However, if you’re doing a more analytical project and need the Petfinder data in a fixed format, like a CSV file for analyzing in Excel, then our service can help you do this without having to write or maintain any code. Our service will query Petfinder’s API on your behalf (you need to provide your API key), and parse out the raw JSON responses into downloadable CSV files you can immediately download and begin using.