Automated notifications for pet availability

Purpose

1. Enhance animal adoption rates by instantly notifying interested parties—potential adopters, volunteers, or partners—about the availability of specific pets matching their preferences or needs.

2. Ensure fresher leads and swifter adoptions by reducing manual work involved in communicating new or updated animal intakes.

3. Coordinates communications across multiple channels (email, SMS, social, push, API hooks) to maximize reach.

4. Supports adoption drives, priority alerts for special-needs animals, and VIP rescue partner notifications.

Trigger Conditions

1. New animal is entered into the intake/adoption platform.

2. Change of an animal’s adoption status (e.g., “Available,” “Pending,” “Adopted,” “Medical Hold”).

3. Update or change in animal attributes (e.g., breed, personality, medical condition).

4. Registered user request for notification regarding specific animal types, ages, or breeds.

5. Scheduled batch check of recent changes within a specified time frame (e.g., hourly sync).

Platform Variants

1. Twilio SMS

• Feature: Trigger “Send Message” API when animal record status is “Available” — Use /Messages endpoint with adopter’s or volunteer’s number and pet info.
  
• Sample: POST https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Messages.json (Body: To, From, Body).
  

2. SendGrid

• Feature: Use “Mail Send” API—trigger email notification with pet details—via /mail/send endpoint.
  
• Sample: POST https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/mail/send (Body: personalization with pet info, recipient preferences).
  

3. Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)

• Feature: Send push notifications to mobile app users when new pets become available using send API.
  
• Sample: POST https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send (Body: registration_ids, notification title/body with pet data).
  

4. Slack

• Feature: Post adoption availability updates to shelter/partner/volunteer channels using chat.postMessage.
  
• Sample: POST https://slack.com/api/chat.postMessage (Body: channel ID, message text with pet status link).
  

5. Microsoft Teams

• Feature: Use Incoming Webhook to send an adaptive card with new animal details to shelter teams.
  
• Sample: POST webhook endpoint (Body: JSON card with animal details, adoption URL).
  

6. Zapier Email

• Feature: Trigger “Send Outbound Email” when new animal meets saved adopter preferences.
  
• Sample: Configure Email by Zapier action (recipient, subject as animal name, body as details).
  

7. Mailchimp

• Feature: Segment adopter lists and trigger “Send Campaign” with the latest arrivals.
  
• Sample: POST /campaigns endpoint (Segments: custom animal preferences, content block: pet info).
  

8. ActiveCampaign

• Feature: Automate email notification via “Create/Send Email” when animal with matching tag is marked available.
  
• Sample: POST /api/3/campaigns (segment filter: animal status, tag: breed/age).
  

9. Pusher Beams

• Feature: Push mobile notification to group/topic subscribers for certain criteria.
  
• Sample: POST /publish_api/v1/instances/{instance_id}/publishes/interests/{interest}.
  

10. Discord

• Feature: Use webhook to broadcast animals ready for adoption to rescue/foster groups.
  
• Sample: POST Discord webhook URL (Body: embeds with animal attributes and photo).
  

11. Facebook Messenger

• Feature: Send a template message via Graph API to subscribers interested in notifications.
  
• Sample: POST /me/messages (fields: recipient ID, message template with pet data).
  

12. Telegram

• Feature: Bot sends alert with new animal info to individual/group/chat via sendMessage.
  
• Sample: POST https://api.telegram.org/bot{token}/sendMessage (chat_id, text).
  

13. WhatsApp Business API

• Feature: Notify adopters on WhatsApp through “messages” endpoint.
  
• Sample: POST /v1/messages (to: phone, type: text, body: pet details).
  

14. Google Sheets

• Feature: Append row via Sheets API when animal marked “Available.”
  
• Sample: POST https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4/spreadsheets/{spreadsheetId}/values/{range}:append.
  

15. Airtable

• Feature: Create new record in a Notification Log view for staff.
  
• Sample: POST /v0/{baseId}/{tableName} (fields: animal, status, timestamp, link).
  

16. HubSpot

• Feature: Use “Create Engagement” API for logging notification task/email/sms for contacts.
  
• Sample: POST /engagements/v1/engagements (details: pet match, contactId).
  

17. Shopify

• Feature: Trigger customer notification on new animal product/adoption listing.
  
• Sample: POST /admin/api/2023-04/customers/{customer_id}/notifications.json.
  

18. Salesforce

• Feature: Create task or alert for leads/opportunities with matching animal preferences.
  
• Sample: POST /services/data/v51.0/sobjects/Task (Subject: animal available, WhoId).
  

19. Intercom

• Feature: Send outbound message to interested users using Messages API.
  
• Sample: POST /messages (type: user, message: pet info, segment: animal interests).
  

20. Webhooks (Generic Custom)

• Feature: POST notification payload to any registered partner endpoint when trigger matches.
  
• Sample: POST {partnerURL} (Body: JSON with pet id, name, photo, link, status).
  

21. Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service)

• Feature: Publish notification to subscriber topic when animal becomes available.
  
• Sample: Publish to Topic ARN with animal availability message payload.
  

22. Google Chat

• Feature: Post message/card in chat space using webhooks with animal profile details.
  
• Sample: POST to chat webhook URL (Body: card JSON, animal info fields).
  

Benefits

1. Increases adoption rates and shelter capacity turn-around via fast, targeted alerts.

2. Reduces manual work and administrative hours for shelter staff.

3. Engages community broadly via preferred communication channels.

4. Decreases shelter costs associated with prolonged animal stays.

5. Improves transparency and satisfaction for potential adopters and partners.

6. Facilitates rapid response for urgent/special case animals, maximizing welfare outcomes.