Petfie lets you show off pet photos - and mark strays for neutering
Besides posting cute pictures of your cats and dogs, the Singapore app allows users to tag strays so a cat charity can find and sterilize them.
If you ever wondered what an Instagram for pets would look like, wonder no more. Petfie, an app created by Singapore-based developer Bencapsulate, wants to be that and more.
While the basic features such as following, picture sharing and leaving comments are very similar to the Facebook-owned platform, Petfie adds the ability to track strays. Taking a picture of a stray animal and marking their location on the built-in map leads them to be neutered by a cat charity, helping to keep down the stray population.
The company is partnering with a non-government agency in Singapore, the Cat Welfare Society, which will receive alerts from the community and take action to neuter marked cats, having checked they're genuine strays. Petfie may do the same for stray dogs as well in the future.
Besides creating alerts for sterilization, pet rescuers and fosterers can put up alerts for adoption, and owners of missing pets can request assistance from the community to search for their lost animals if they're in the vicinity.
In upcoming versions, Petfie will also be able to send notifications and alerts if you're in the vicinity of a pet that you follow. This is still in development, as the company is still trying to figure out how to best ensure user privacy.
Petfie also intends to add profiles for businesses in a future update, so you can easily search for a nearby vet if you need medical help, or need to find a pet shop for emergency chew toys.
The iOS-only app (there are plans for Android) is currently only available in the Singapore App Store, but there are plans for a Hong Kong launch in the next six months. That said, you can still download the app and it should work wherever you are, though of course the sterilization feature won't work outside of the island state.