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Can you keep a secret?
Something VERY exciting is happening in the pet adoption space on the weekend of Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th October 2025.
Have you got a pet in your care that would make a wonderful companion for someone, but has been overlooked by adopters because of common pet stereotypes?
What if interested adopters were encouraged to get drawn to a pet’s individual personality and become interested in them before seeing what they looked like?
For just one weekend only, pet profile photos will be hidden!
Sometimes a true companion doesn’t come in the package an adopter has pictured…so why not (temporarily) remove the pictures!
On Saturday 4th October and Sunday 5th October, we’re challenging perceptions and promoting overlooked pets by hiding profile pictures from the main search results page (and replacing them with a snoot photo), along with highlighting each pet’s unique personality traits.
Research shows that better matches are made when adopters consider an individual pet’s personality, as well as their likes and dislikes, rather than their breed, size, or other physical characteristics. So we’re experimenting a little to level the playing field for ALL rescue pets equally, in a special weekend spotlighting personality over appearance!
What changes are happening on the platform?
For the two days of the campaign weekend, all search results will have a placeholder nose picture (because Love ‘Nose’ No Breed) and a hero slogan for each pet’s personality, based automagically on their profile.
This means adopters will view pet profiles based on who they are, not what they look like!
Once adopters head to the pet’s individual profile, all of their pictures will still be there - but to keep up the ‘read first, look second’ nudges, the pictures will be blurred out and enquirers will have to hover to reveal the photos.
We’re also temporarily hiding appearance-type filters in the search for age, size, and coat length.
All pet profile information will remain, and the site will revert back to normal after the weekend.
Image Credit: Aleksandr Nadyojin via Pexels
Do I need to do anything?
This campaign will provide all PetRescue members with a great opportunity to "bump" long-term or harder-to-rehome pets, and let their personalities shine!
The website takeover will happen automatically, and all of the features are temporary, so all profiles will be back to normal on Monday 6th of October.
We also welcome your organisation to join in the fun and get involved, incorporating the theme into your social media or webpage too!
As a valued member of the PetRescue community, we wanted you to be the first to know. We ask that you please keep it a secret (for now).
Please reach out if you have any queries or would like to know more about the campaign! We’d love to share insights and help members trial similar campaigns within their communities to help all pets find their loving home sooner.
Other things to know:
- These changes will not impact API feeds on individual member websites - your available pet feed will appear as usual
- If you use an API and aren’t familiar with bumping your longer stay pets, this is easy to do! Just log in to your account, and hit the ‘bump’ button next to the pet’s name on your listings page.
- We’re not making any changes to existing pet profiles or photos, but enquirers will need to hover over pet pictures to see them within the profile during this weekend - all part of the gentle nudge to get people focusing on the information YOU provide about your available pets.
Image Banner Credit: Karolina Grabowska via Pexels
