How listings are ordered

What French consumer law (art. L111-7) and EU Regulation 2019/1150 require us to say, written from the code that actually does the ordering: where the order of results comes from, and what a payment can change.

First, who gets into the list

Each listing is compared with what you told us. A listing your answers rule out does not appear — a species you are not looking for, an animal that does not get on with yours, a place beyond the travel time you accept, fees above your budget, a garden required when you have none. What a listing does not say rules no one out: it becomes a question to ask the organisation. A listing no source has updated for two years is only shown if you ask for it.

Then the order, criterion by criterion

Sorted by “Most recent, well matched” (the default), one result comes before another on the first of these criteria that tells them apart:

1. If you said how far you would travel, listings we cannot place come after those we can.
2. How recent the listing is, in bands: updated within 2 days, 7 days, 30 days, then listings with no date, then those unchanged for more than 30 days.
3. What the listing confirms of what you said (getting on with others, age, budget, home, distance): the more it confirms, the higher it goes.
4. A listing recently republished by its organisation.
5. Distance, in bands: under 25 km, 50 km, 100 km, beyond.
6. When tied, the animal that is hardest to place comes first: long wait, age, health.
7. The exact distance, then the most recent update.

The other sort orders (“Closest”, price, age, update) order by that criterion alone, and unknowns always go last. No placement applies to them.

What a payment can change: “Featured”

• A “Featured” listing may be placed among the first 8 results of a search with the default sort, up to 2 featured listings per search.
• Only if it is already among your results: a placement never brings in a listing your answers rule out.
• Only within your département: when several featured listings compete for the places, they rotate every 1 h.
• Every placed listing carries the “Featured” badge wherever it appears, for as long as the placement lasts.
• Beyond these places, the criteria above apply to every listing, paid or not.

Today, no placement is for sale: payment is not open. Only the Patte Blanche team can set one, and it carries the same badge.

What no payment changes

• The order of applications: an organisation receives them in order of arrival, unranked.
• What brings a listing into your results, or rules it out.
• Access to a family’s contact details before an organisation has chosen them.
• An organisation’s response rate, nor any “recommended” badge: there is none.

“Urgent” is free, and moves no listing

The “Urgent” label cannot be bought. An organisation requests it for one of its listings and says why — pound, end of a foster placement, health, closure — and a person on the Patte Blanche team approves or refuses it. It adds a badge to the listing for 30 days, then switches off. It does not change the listing’s place in your results.

The “In the spotlight this week” section

On the home page, a separate block shows at most 6 animals chosen by a person on the Patte Blanche team, with no payment and for a limited time — often those that have been waiting a long time. It is labelled as such. It adds no listing to your results and does not change their order.

For organisations, breeders and professionals

EU Regulation 2019/1150 (art. 5) requires us to describe the main ranking parameters and the weight of any remuneration. The parameters are, in order, those of the list above: how recent the listing is and how well it matches the household searching weigh most. The only remuneration that affects position is “Featured”, within the limits above. An up-to-date listing that states how the animal gets on with others, its age and its fees rises on its own.