Why filing includes a contribution
Filing a new report includes a $1.00 contribution, charged once, at the end, after you have written everything and seen your summary. Posting a missing pet is the same. It is non-refundable, and it does not buy a decision — a person still reads the report and decides whether it belongs on the record at all.
We would rather tell you that here than surprise you with it on the last step.
What it is actually for
A report on this site names a street, a city and sometimes a person. A registry that accepts those for free, from anyone, as fast as a script can send them, is a registry that can be used to hurt somebody. That is the single worst thing this could become, and it is easier to prevent than to undo.
A card transaction is a real-world cost and a traceable one. It does not stop a determined person, and it is not meant to — it stops volume. Someone filing one report about something they saw pays a dollar. Someone trying to file four hundred fabricated reports about one neighbour has to pay four hundred dollars through a payment processor that keeps records, which is a very different proposition.
The rest goes where the reading happens: staff who open every submission, check it against public records, weigh the evidence, and reject the ones that do not hold up. That reading is the whole product. It is also the part that costs a salary.
What is free, and stays free
- Searching the map, in any area, as many times as you like
- Reading every report that has been screened and published
- The federal cruelty figures, refreshed daily from the FBI
- The animal-cruelty statute for all fifty states and DC
- Browsing missing pets, and reporting a sighting of one
The contribution applies at one point only: adding something new to the record. Verified shelters, rescues and veterinary clinics file with no contribution at all.