Your trust matters
Privacy & community guidelines
Every Dog's Chance is a small, volunteer-spirited project to help dogs get adopted. We keep what we collect to a minimum, and we never sell your information. Here’s exactly how it works.
What we collect
We only collect the information you choose to give us. Depending on how you use the site, that may include:
- Email alerts: your email address and the search filters you ask us to watch (state, breed, or keyword), so we can email you when a matching dog is listed.
- Messages: the name or initials you enter, an optional location, and your message text. You may also include an email address, which is never shown publicly.
How we use it
- To show approved messages publicly on this site.
- To send the email alerts you signed up for.
- To contact you only if we genuinely need to about something you submitted.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information, and we don’t use it for advertising.
Email & consent
All of our emails are double opt-in: after you sign up, we send one confirmation email, and you only ever receive messages after you click to confirm. Every email includes a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can opt out at any time.
What appears publicly
When you submit a message, only the public fields appear on the site once approved — your name or initials, location, and message text. Your email address is kept private and is visible only to our moderators.
Moderation & community guidelines
This is a space for kindness, support, and celebration of dogs. Every message is reviewed — automatically and, when needed, by a person — before it appears. We may decline or remove anything that is spam or advertising, hateful or abusive, a scam, or otherwise not in the spirit of helping dogs find homes. By submitting, you confirm you have the right to share what you post and that it may be displayed publicly. To request removal of something you submitted, just reach out.
Third-party services we rely on
To keep the site useful and lightweight, a few trusted services help power specific features. We share only what each feature needs, and never your community submissions or alert details:
- Google (vet & shelter directories): our vet and shelter & rescue directories search the Google Places API and link to Google Maps. Listings, ratings, hours, and reviews come from Google and may be out of date — always confirm directly with the organization. Your use of Google’s data is also governed by the Google Privacy Policy (opens in a new tab). We store only coarse, anonymous search regions (state, city, and a partial ZIP) to learn where pets need more help — never your full ZIP, search keywords, or any personal or medical details.
- Analytics & measurement: we use our own lightweight visit counting plus Google’s measurement tools (Google Analytics and the Google Ads tag) to understand which pages and features are most helpful and whether our outreach works, in aggregate. These tools, their resource hints, and our own visit counting stay completely off until you accept via the Cookie preferences section below. Declining keeps them off. We never use any of these tools to identify you personally.
- Email delivery: confirmation, alert, and memorial-update emails are sent through our email provider solely to deliver the messages you signed up for.
Cookies and services, page by page
This table is generated from the same list our automated privacy check runs against every release: an un-consented visit to our home, listing, dog, breed, story, and guide pages must contact none of the Google, Meta, PayPal, or Calendly services below. Last verified against live traffic on .
| Service | What it does | When it loads | Where | Cookies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Our own visit counting This site | Counts page views and feature use on our own server, in aggregate. | Only after you accept optional cookies | Every page | None beyond the consent cookie itself. |
| Google Analytics 4 | Which pages and features are most helpful, in aggregate. | Only after you accept optional cookies | Every page | _ga and _ga_* (up to 2 years). |
| Meta Pixel Meta | Whether visits come from our Facebook posts and ads. | Only after you accept optional cookies | Every page | _fbp (90 days). |
| PayPal Donate PayPal | Renders the donate button and processes your donation. | Only where you use the feature; no consent needed | The donate page only | PayPal session cookies set by PayPal when the button renders. |
| YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) | Plays the video on a story page after you press play. | Only where you use the feature; no consent needed | Story pages that include a video; the poster image loads with the page and the player only after you press play | None until you press play; YouTube then uses its own cookies inside the player. |
Cookie preferences
Use the controls below to accept or decline analytics and tracking cookies — or to change a decision you made earlier. Your preference is saved for one year and takes effect immediately across the site.
Your current preference:
Your choices
- Accept or decline analytics cookies — or change your mind at any time — using the Cookie preferences section above.
- Unsubscribe from any email using the link at the bottom of the message.
- Ask us to remove a message or memorial you submitted.
- Choose not to provide optional details — only a few fields are ever required.
Contact & data requests
To request removal of a community submission or memorial, or to ask any privacy question, just reach out at info@lilysecondchance.org or through our contact page. We’ll take care of it promptly.
Ask Lily chat
Ask Lily conversations are saved for up to 90 days, with contact details removed, to help improve the assistant. Please do not share personal or sensitive information in chat.
A note on adoption listings
Dog listings and resources are gathered to help you find and help dogs, and may change at any time. Always verify adoption details directly with the shelter or rescue.