About AdoptNearby
Looking for a pet to adopt should not mean fighting through popups and ads. AdoptNearby was built in Pennsylvania by one person who got tired of that, and who noticed that birds, reptiles and small animals get almost no attention on the big sites.
The listings come from shelters and rescues through RescueGroups.org, the shelters' own Shelterluv pages and county open-data feeds. We show them plainly, by species and state, and link you to the organization. We do not take applications, hold data about you, or charge anyone.
There are no ads and no affiliate links. AdoptNearby is a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation, a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO), and is paid for by donations. If it has helped you, you can keep it free for the next person.
Who built it
AdoptNearby was written by Joel Chambers, its founder and president, who is also the founder and executive director of Search Angels, the nonprofit he started in 2014 to help adoptees find their biological families through DNA. Its more than 300 volunteers have completed over 10,000 searches, free of charge. The same conviction runs through both projects: every adoptee deserves to be found, whatever their shape, size or species.
Joel has spent more than 25 years in information technology: managing IT operations, running servers and virtual infrastructure, securing systems and email, planning for disaster recovery, and automating work that used to be done by hand. He holds a Master of Science in Information Systems, earned with distinction, along with Microsoft and Apple certifications. He built every part of this site himself, from the data feeds that gather listings from thousands of shelters and rescues to the pages you are reading now.
What drives it is simple: a dedication to adoptees of all shapes, sizes and species, and to the people looking for them.
Help keep it free
AdoptNearby is a nonprofit run on small donations. A few dollars a month keeps an overlooked animal on screen every day.