Trust & Safety

Effective May 7, 2026

PatMate exists so responsible owners can find good matches for their pets. This page explains the everyday work behind that — how we moderate listings, what gets you banned, how we verify breeders, and what we deliberately do not do. If you ever find yourself wondering whether something is allowed, this is the page to check first.

Our principles

• Welfare first. No matchmaking is worth a sick or stressed animal. See the Welfare Policy for the hard rules.
• Owners, not resellers. Listings must come from the legal keeper of the pet. Pet stores, brokers, and resellers are banned on sight.
• Honest information. Misrepresenting age, lineage, health, or vaccination status will end your account.
• Privacy by default. Your address and exact GPS are never displayed publicly — only the city/region you chose to share.

Verification

Every account starts unverified and can list pets only after the owner confirms their email. Optional, opt-in checks raise the bar further:

• ID verification — confirms a legal name matches the account. Documents are stored encrypted, reviewed manually, and deleted after review unless we are required by law to retain them.
• Breeder verification — confirms membership of a recognised kennel/cattery club, registration with a national authority, or veterinary attestation. Verified accounts get a badge and can list more pets.

Reporting

Every pet, profile, and message has a Report button. Reports are reviewed by our moderation team — usually within 48 hours, always within 7 days for safety-critical reports (animal welfare, impersonation, threats). For an immediate danger to an animal, contact your local animal-welfare authority directly; we cooperate fully with lawful requests.

Moderation actions

Depending on severity we may, in increasing order of escalation:

1. Issue a private warning and ask you to fix or remove the content.
2. Hide a listing from public search until corrected.
3. Restrict messaging or new listings while we investigate.
4. Suspend the account for a fixed period.
5. Ban the account permanently and refuse re-registration.
6. Report to the relevant authorities where laws are broken.

What we never do

• Take a cut of any breeding fee. PatMate does not process payments between users. Any money that changes hands is purely between the two owners.
• Sell or share personal data. See the Privacy Policy.
• Run advertising or behavioural-targeting cookies. We use one consent-gated, EU-hosted analytics integration (PostHog) and nothing else.
• Guarantee a successful breeding. Biology is unpredictable; PatMate is information and matchmaking, not insurance.

Contacting us

Welfare concerns: [email protected]
Privacy / GDPR: [email protected]
Vulnerability disclosure: [email protected] (see also /.well-known/security.txt)
Anything else: [email protected]

We aim to reply within 7 days. Substantive GDPR requests are answered within 30 days (Art. 12(3)).