Legal & Disclaimers

Roo is an artificial intelligence assistant. The messages you see from her are generated by a large language model, based on what you have told her and the information available to her at that moment. She is not a veterinarian, an animal behaviourist, a shelter counsellor, or an adoption officer, and she does not know any animal personally.

AI text can be confidently worded and still be wrong, incomplete, or out of date. It can misread a phrase you typed, repeat a detail it shouldn't, or describe a need in a way that doesn't fit your situation. Treat everything Roo says as a starting point for a conversation with the shelter — never as a verdict about an animal or about you.

Nothing on this site is veterinary, animal-behaviour, housing, legal, financial, or insurance advice. Specifically:

• Health: any mention of a medical condition, medication, diet, weight, or symptom is general information, not a diagnosis or a treatment plan. Only a licensed veterinarian who has examined the animal can diagnose or treat.
• Behaviour: descriptions of temperament, “good with kids,” energy level, or a flag such as “submissive” are the shelter's or foster’s observations of that animal in their environment. Behaviour changes with a new home. A qualified behaviourist or trainer is the right person for a specific concern.
• Housing and breed rules: when Roo flags a breed restriction, an HOA covenant, a landlord rule, or a municipal ordinance, that is a prompt to go and verify with your landlord, HOA, or local authorities in writing. Restrictions vary by address and change, and we cannot check them for you.
• Costs and logistics: figures Roo gives for food, care, or time commitments are rough planning numbers, not quotes or budgeting advice.

If a professional you have hired says something different from what Roo said, follow your professional.

Howroo Pets does not house, examine, evaluate, or take custody of any animal on this site. The photos, ages, breeds, descriptions, and availability you see are supplied by the shelters, rescues, and foster networks that work with us, and are delivered to us through the adoption-listing services those organisations publish from.

That means three things worth stating out loud:

• We don't verify them. We pass along what our partners publish. We don't independently confirm an animal's health, temperament, history, or status.
• They go stale quickly. An animal shown as available may already be adopted, in transit, in foster care, or at the vet. If a listing looks wrong, tell the shelter first and then us.
• The shelter owns the record. For anything factual about an animal — medical records, behaviour notes, the reason the animal is in care — the organisation holding the animal is the source of truth.

Where a pet page shows a link to the shelter's own listing, that listing is the authoritative version.

When Roo suggests an animal, she is comparing what you have told her about your life with what is written in that animal's listing. The result is an estimate of fit, presented as a band — high, medium, or low — with an honest note about any gap and how to close it.

A match is not a guarantee that the animal will suit your home, that your household will suit the animal, that the animal will be healthy, or that any adoption will be approved. Two animals of the same breed and age can need completely different homes. Where Roo tells you something is a gap, that gap is real even if the rest of the picture is a strong fit.

No amount of conversation replaces spending time with an animal in person. We ask every adopter to meet the animal at the shelter or rescue before committing, and to follow that organisation's own process — including any home visit, reference check, or trial period.

• Introduce a new animal to resident pets slowly and under supervision, and follow the guidance of the shelter or a qualified trainer.
• Children should never be left unsupervised with any animal, whatever a listing or a match suggests about temperament.
• Decompression is normal: many rescued animals take weeks to settle, and early behaviour is not the finished picture. Shelters often explain their own decompression expectations — read theirs.
• If you or someone in your household has a health condition, allergies, mobility limits, or an assistance-animal arrangement, get the advice of your own clinician before adopting. Roo cannot assess that for you.

When you send an application or book a meet-and-greet through Howroo Pets, we help you prepare it and pass it to the shelter or rescue you chose. The shelter then makes its own decision under its own policy. Howroo Pets is not a party to any adoption, does not approve applications, and does not set, collect, or refund adoption fees or any other charge a shelter or rescue applies.

Information you submit is your responsibility to keep accurate and current. Submitting an application is not a reservation of an animal, and it does not hold an animal for you.

We keep this short and concrete, because it is the part people actually need:

• What Roo collects: the messages you write, and the household, housing, lifestyle and preferences you describe in them, plus the animals you show interest in. This exists so Roo can help you and so your application can be prepared.
• Where it goes: conversations are processed by an AI model provider on our behalf, stored in our hosting environment, and shared with the shelter you choose when you apply to that shelter.
• Analytics: we use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages help people. That sets cookies in your browser. We do not serve advertising or sell your data. We honour the Global Privacy Control signal, so if your browser asks us not to track you, we don't.
• Please don't share more than you need to.Roo does not need your driver's licence number, your financial account details, your workplace, your children's full names or schools, or anyone's medical records. If you have already shared something sensitive, ask us and we'll remove it.
• Your choices: email roo@howroo-pets.com to see, correct, or delete the information we hold about you, or to raise any privacy concern. We respond to requests from individuals regardless of where they live.

This site is not directed at children, and Roo is not designed for them. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. Adopters under 18 should use the site with a parent or guardian. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

The site links to shelter websites, adoption-listing services, video hosts, and local resources such as trainers, groomers, and boarding facilities. Those are independent businesses and organisations. We don't control them, we don't endorse their services, and we aren't responsible for their accuracy, availability, pricing, safety, or conduct. Any arrangement you make with one of them is between you and them.

Recommendations we surface for closing a match gap are suggestions for where to look, not vetted endorsements. Check credentials, insurance, and reviews yourself.

Howroo Pets is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including that the site is error-free, that AI responses are accurate, or that information about an animal is current. We do not guarantee that you will find a pet, that a pet will be available, or that an application will succeed.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Howroo Pets, LLC is not liable for any decision you make in reliance on this site or on Roo's messages, or for any indirect or consequential loss arising from your use of the site — including veterinary bills, property damage, injury, or the costs of a placement that does not work out. Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

We may update this page as the product, our partners, and the applicable rules change. The date at the top shows the current version. Material changes will be noted here.

Howroo Pets, LLC operates this site. Questions, corrections, removal requests, and shelter or rescue partnerships all go to the same place:

roo@howroo-pets.com

Not a shelter yet but want to be part of the network? Start at For Shelters & Rescues, or begin a search in Find my Pet.