This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous
Coming from three years at a nonprofit shelter that used Shelterluv, I advocated ceasing its use within two months. I quickly realized how deeply embedded they were in every part of the shelter's operations. My opposition solidified after I received an API key and saw firsthand the flawed, restrictive system they impose.
I am fundamentally against the existence of Shelterluv and its parent company, Houndtown. These companies have no place in any shelter that claims to uphold ethical or moral values for protecting animals and their communities.
Their data collection practices are alarming. I have no confidence that any meaningful safeguards exist to protect individuals' personal and private information. I would be surprised if they aren't engaging in full-scale data collection and selling it to the highest bidder.
Even more troubling is how these practices negatively affect nonprofit shelters. Shelterluv and Houndtown's aggressive monetization strategies seep into every corner of shelter operations and are entirely at odds with the core mission of nonprofits. Tracking employee behavior, running third-party tracking services, and injecting outdated code into the source-these are not services; they are data-harvesting tools at the expense of shelters.
Even worse, the data shelters input into Shelterluv is not stored on-site, not backed up, and inaccessible offline. Exporting data is limited to basic office documents with preset sorting options, and parsing this data for meaningful insights is practically impossible. Advanced analytics on intakes, outcomes, medical histories, or public engagement? Nonexistent without painstaking manual effort.
Their API is under-documented, and retrieving data requires reverse-engineering through trial and error. I've personally had to build my own API just to develop basic functionality like dashboards and search tools for staff-none of which Shelterluv provides. Ironically, using my methods to improve the system violates their terms of service and could result in the shelter's account being terminated. Without an official backup method, shelters could lose access to critical records.
Shelterluv's features are outdated compared to modern standards, and their partnership with companies to push ads for pet insurance during adoptions is predatory. Worse still, they intentionally cut off connectivity with RescueGroups, despite being informed about the prohibitive cost for nonprofits to adapt. With RescueGroups' API, I built an interactive map and database of over 3,000 rescues and shelters in the U.S. for free. I wonder why Shelterluv wouldn't want to embrace such an organization?
I know this is long-winded, but Shelterluv is not just inconvenient-they are unethical, incompatible with the values of nonprofit shelters, and not worth a penny.
In addition to sharing the things I mentioned I made below, I've
Included in the image is the documentation Shelterluv provides to paying shelters. They even try to prevent you from having a copy. You can't save it, and it won't even let you print it by default. They expect developers to visit that Google Doc online every time they need to look at it-fortunately, that's only once or twice unless you have the memory of Dory. Ninety percent of that document just lists what they respond with. Which you would know once you read the first response . No Swagger doc or any other standard. I'd share the API I made, but it's littered with auth tokens and non-generalized URLs. It needs to be sanitized before sharing. Which I truly do not have time for today.
Older version of the maps that are still online.
https://spacedudem.github.io/rescues
https://spacedudem.github.io/shelters
Rescue & Shelter CRM
The entire list made using RescueGroup's API, the was cleaned up, added to with various enrichment services and in the end condensed down to this format.
Original Message:
Sent: 10-09-2024 01:23 PM
From: Anonymous Member
Subject: Shelterluv & Other Software Solutions?
This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous
Our organization is exploring new software options, and we're currently looking into Shelterluv. We're interested in hearing how other organizations are managing volunteers and donors using this platform. Do you have any tips or best practices for utilizing Shelterluv for these areas? Or, do you use a different software solution that you would recommend for handling volunteers and donor management? Any insights would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
#DataandTechnology