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PickAPet

Owner Agreement

Version 16 · Last updated October 24, 2026

Agreement between you and Zakaria Global Enterprise LLC, which runs PickAPet (“PickAPet”, “we”, “us”).

1. Who can list. You are 18 or older. You and your pet are in a state where PickAPet operates (Texas at launch), the meet happens there, and the pet you list is a kind of pet we accept there. You show us your driver's license or state ID when you list. We check only that you are 18 or older and that the name matches your account. We delete the photo as soon as your listing is decided or withdrawn, or after 30 days, and keep only the ID's expiry date, the state that issued it, and who checked it and when. The adopter never sees it. A check is good for 12 months. Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy also apply. If they disagree with this agreement about your listing, this agreement controls, as the Terms of Use say under “Which document applies”.

2. Your pet stays with you. Your pet stays in your care and stays your legal property until the handoff in section 11. We help you find, screen and meet an adopter. We never own, hold, house or examine your pet.

3. The pet is yours to give. You own your pet, or you have the owner's permission to rehome them. No one else has a claim on them, they are not lost or stolen, and no court order, quarantine or bite investigation stops you from giving them away. If you are a shelter or contact listing your pet for its owner, you also tick “I list this pet for its owner and have their permission.”

4. Your listing. You add 1 to 6 photos and write the description yourself. Photos must be of your pet, taken by you or used with permission. Do not put your street address, phone number or email in the photos or the description. You keep your photos and words. You let us show them, and edit them only to fit the page or remove contact details, on PickAPet, in our emails, and in PickAPet social posts, ads and success stories, while your pet is listed and afterwards. Your listing is public. Anyone can see it. We never show your name or an area finer than your city. You may mention your pet's belongings, but you may not sell them through PickAPet.

5. The information is yours. The health, vaccination, spay or neuter, and temperament information you give us is true and complete to the best of your knowledge, and any records you give us are genuine. If something changes before the handoff (a new illness, an injury, a bite), you tell us and the adopter in the chat before the meet.

6. Disclosure of known problems. You tell us about any bite history, aggression, chronic illness or ongoing medication before we list your pet. Hiding these is the one thing that ends this agreement immediately.

7. Vet records and your clinic. Dogs and cats need a vet record before they are listed. It shows the core vaccines, and the rabies shot from 16 weeks old. A younger pet can be listed, and its listing shows the day its rabies shot is due, the day it turns 16 weeks old. You give us your vet clinic's name. Its email is optional. You allow us to email or call your clinic about your pet, send them a copy of this permission, and ask them to confirm your records. Your clinic may call you to check. Records are kept private and are never shown on the public listing. An adopter may ask to see them. We cover your personal details before we share them. After the handoff, we send the new owner the vet records we have. Your pet must already be spayed or neutered when you list, and you send us the vet's proof.

8. We tell adopters the truth. Your listing says that your pet lives with you, that the health and behavior information came from you and your records, and that PickAPet has not examined them.

9. Choosing the adopter. We screen everyone who applies. Your Applicants tab shows the screened applicants for your pet, with the answers you need to choose and without their contact details. You pick one, or tap “I trust you to choose” and we pick for you. We tell the others we are keeping their applications, just in case plans change. You may still say no to an adopter, including at the meet, and either of you can walk away before the PIN. We then offer your pet to the next screened applicant if you want us to.

10. The pickup window, the chat and the meet.

  • When you pick, a private chat opens between you and the adopter, and a 7-day pickup window starts. The adopter may extend it once by 7 days. If the handoff does not happen in time, the chat closes and your pet goes to the next applicant or back on the site.
  • Use the chat to agree a day, time and place to meet. The chat is read by our automated watcher and by the PickAPet team (our admins and managers) to keep people safe and spot scams, and we may flag an account because of it. Any AI tools we use never see ID photos, payment details or other sensitive information. A message the chat holds back is never sent to the adopter. When the chat closes, you can both still read it on your pickup page. Keep phone numbers and emails out of the chat. Our Terms of use explain why.
  • We recommend meeting at the owner's home, at a vet's office, or anywhere else your state and city allow. If you ever feel unsafe, walk away. Your safety matters more than any adoption.
  • PickAPet is not at the meet, except for a “Recommended by PickAPet” pet. Then we attend and show the PIN, and the shelter or family normally brings the pet.
  • Bring your pet, the same pet you listed.

11. The PIN hands your pet over. Once the adopter has signed their adoption contract, your phone (or, for a Recommended pet, ours) shows a PIN. Showing the PIN to the adopter and letting them enter it hands ownership of your pet to the adopter, once their payment goes through. Do not show it until you are ready to let your pet go.

  • Entering the PIN charges the adopter's held fee first. Ownership passes only if that payment goes through.
  • If the payment fails, nothing changes hands. The adopter can pay with another card through a secure payment link, and you both get a confirmation when the payment is received. Hand your pet over only after that confirmation.

Once the payment goes through:

  • the adopter owns your pet and is responsible for them, and you give up every right to your pet;
  • the listing and the chat close, and PickAPet does not arrange returns or take-backs;
  • we send the adopter the vet records we have for your pet;
  • we ask you to cooperate with the adopter in transferring your pet's microchip registration. That transfer is between you and the adopter, and PickAPet does not guarantee it.

If the PIN is never entered, or the payment never goes through, nothing changes hands, the adopter owes nothing (except any 10% cancellation fee, which goes to PickAPet) and your pet stays yours.

12. Fees.

  • Listing your pet is free during our launch. If we start charging owners, we will tell you before you are charged anything, and you can choose not to pay.
  • The adopter pays PickAPet an adoption service fee for screening, vet-record checks and the handoff tools. It is $75. When we confirm your pet's breed, it is $150, which includes the breed check. If you give us your pet's breed, we check it before your pet is listed. We look at breed papers or a registration, or without them, at vet records, photos and the breed standard. The breed check is not a DNA test, not a vet's confirmation and not a registration. It is not a guarantee of breed, ancestry, size, health or behavior. Mixed ancestry can be hard to tell from looks. If we can't confirm it, the listing shows your pet as a mix of that breed. Each pet of a bonded pair has its own fee. Nothing is held when you pick them. When you both confirm the meet, they add a card. We hold the full fee 2 hours before the meet and charge it when the PIN is entered. If their card fails at the hold and they don't update it, the meet is off and we tell you. If the adopter cancels, doesn't show or backs out at the meet, we may charge them a 10% cancellation fee. A cancelled or missed meet causes costs that are hard to measure exactly. The 10% is a fair estimate of those costs, not a penalty. The fee is not a price for your pet, and you receive no part of it, including the 10%. An adopter may ask us for a lower fee, and PickAPet decides.
  • Everything goes through PickAPet. You will not ask for, or take, money, gifts, trades or favors from the adopter, outside PickAPet, for your pet or for any item listed on PickAPet with your pet or on its own. Giving the adopter your pet's own things for free, such as their bed, toys or leftover food, is fine. Taking or asking for a side payment breaks this agreement. We may cancel the pickup, take down your listings, put a flag on your account and close it. If an adopter offers you one, tell us in the chat or at hello@pickapet.org.
  • Spotlight is optional and paid. It shows your pet in a home-page spot in your area for the dates you book. Prices are on the spotlight page before you pay. It does not change screening or who may apply. Once a spot has started it is not refunded. If we remove your pet for a reason that is not your fault, or we make a mistake, we refund the unused days. If your pet is adopted before the spot starts, we refund it in full. If your pet is adopted during the spot, the spot ends and is not refunded.
  • After a handoff we may invite you to “chip in” toward running PickAPet. It is optional, it is a payment to a business and not a charitable donation, and it changes nothing about your listing.

13. Staying in touch. Answer applicants and us in good time. If applicants are waiting and you have not looked at them for a few days, we email you a deadline at least 2 days away. If you do not pick by then, we pause the listing and tell the applicants. We also check in from time to time to ask if your pet still needs a home, and pause the listing if you don't answer. You can relist your pet at any time.

14. No-shows and flags. If you or the adopter miss the meet, the other can tap “They didn't show”. We look at what happened and decide. After the meet we email you both “How did the meet go?”. Please answer within 2 days. If you don't show, or don't tell us how the meet went, we put a flag on your account. If your answer and the adopter's disagree, we decide from the chat and meet history. We may put a flag on an account for a no-show, wrong pet details, hidden health or behavior problems, sharing contact details in the chat, or abusive messages. Flags can lead to a warning, paused listings or a closed account, as set out on our Community rules page. You can ask us to review a flag, and we reply within 3 business days.

15. Responsibility. Because we have not examined your pet, you agree to cover PickAPet's losses and reasonable legal costs from claims caused by any of these.

  • Health or behavior problems that existed before the handoff and that you did not tell us about.
  • Information or records you gave us that were false.
  • What you or your pet do at the meet or before the handoff.
  • Your breaking this agreement.

We will tell you promptly about any such claim. We may defend it ourselves. You will not settle it in our name without our written consent.

16. What PickAPet does not promise. We cannot promise that your pet will be adopted, how soon, or that an adopter will behave well. Screening and record checks lower the risk. They do not remove it. The site is provided as it is and may sometimes be unavailable. If something goes wrong, the most PickAPet owes you is what you paid us for the thing the claim is about (for example, a spotlight booking), or $100 if that's more. We're not responsible for other losses it may lead to, such as lost profits, vet bills or other costs, except where the law does not allow these limits.

17. Either of us can stop. You may withdraw your pet at any time before the PIN is entered. We may decline, pause or remove a listing at our discretion, and we will tell you why when we can. Sections 3, 5, 6, 11, 15 and 16 continue after this agreement ends.

18. Following the law where you live. You are responsible for following the laws where you live and where your pet lives. This includes state and city rules on owning, transferring and keeping pets, such as licences, permits, vaccines and pet limits. We share general guidance on our site to help. It is not legal advice, and it may not cover every rule in your area. If you list, adopt or meet where the law does not allow it, you are responsible for that, not PickAPet. We may remove a listing or close an account that breaks the law. This does not remove any duty the law places on PickAPet itself. It does not waive any right the law does not allow to be waived.

19. Changes. If we change this agreement, the new version applies to listings made after it is posted. For a listing that is already live, we email you the change first.

20. Signing and the rest. You agree that typing your name on the listing form is your signature and counts the same as signing on paper. We keep a record of this agreement's version, your name, the date and time, your IP address and your device. This agreement is governed by Texas law. If we disagree, email us first and give us 30 days to fix it. If we cannot, either of us may go to the courts of Harris County, Texas. Small claims court is open to both of us. There is no arbitration. We may transfer this agreement to whoever runs PickAPet after us. If any part cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.

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