Ela Sayag Lipman got a distressing phone call from her cousin on the second day of Passover 2023. He’d just found an ailing Central Asian Shepherd dog in the woods near Petah Tikva. Knowing that she’d been caring for stray, sick, and abandoned animals since childhood, he hoped she could tell him what to do.
Lipman contacted several animal-welfare organizations, but everyone she approached was too overwhelmed to help. So, she advised her cousin to take the dog to a nearby veterinary hospital, and she’d take it from there.
The vet scanned a microchip under the dog’s skin, leading Lipman to its Arab owner. He explained that he’d abandoned the large animal because he couldn’t afford to feed him anymore.
Lipman, 33, decided to foster Namer at her home in Jaffa until he was healthy. She and her husband already had an adopted dog and a handful of cats.
“Namer couldn’t even stand; he weighed just 40 kilos and had a lot of skin diseases. Now he’s 70 kilos and has an amazing, healthy coat. But when I started to look for a home for him, I discovered a messy situation,” she says.
“There are hundreds of shelters and charities, even businesses like pet pensions, that try to help dogs by taking them in and finding them new homes. They each have their own Facebook or Instagram page or WhatsApp group. The data is not sorted or updated. Everything is done manually, with no management system beyond an Excel sheet, and no communication with local government authorities.”
Tinder for pets and adopters
Having worked in hi-tech for 11 years as a quality assurance manager, Lipman realized she needed to create a digital platform, “a marketplace where we’d collect, organize, and analyze all the data” on pets needing owners.
She’d met her husband through the swipe-left, swipe-right Tinder dating app, “so this was the format that came to mind: a ‘Tinder’ for dogs and cats looking for homes.”
This notion turned into Adopt Me Israel, a nonprofit putting tech expertise to the task of matching shelter animals with forever homes based on personality, lifestyle, family situation, and needs.
Lipman, the CEO, recruited more than 80 volunteers from the hi-tech, marketing, design, animal-welfare, and nonprofit sectors. Her former coworker, Tomer Chechik, chairs the board.
Adopt Me Israel strives to make order out of chaos for the benefit of the animals, potential adopters, and municipalities struggling with an ever-growing population of stray and abandoned cats and dogs.
Lipman and fellow volunteers made a thorough assessment by visiting animal shelters and talking to national and local officials.
The initiative began several months before October 7, but even then, she remembers that the shelter in Sderot was overwhelmed with hundreds of dogs and cats from surrounding towns and from Gaza.
Once the war started, the situation in the western Negev and the Galilee reached crisis proportions, with countless animals in dire straits. Today it’s even worse across the country, particularly for dogs.
“While cats are allowed to live on the streets, dogs by law must be put in shelters and can be shot or poisoned if they’re on the street. These dogs are getting euthanized because the municipalities have very little budget for animal control, and it’s cheaper to euthanize them than trying to give them a chance to be adopted,” Lipman explains.
“Through our app, which now has over 10,000 downloads on Android and iOS, we have collected a lot of data over the past year and a half.”
The website has an English version, and the app will soon be available in English, too.
“We focus on municipal shelters because no one is promoting them. Our technology division is developing tools to help them.”
About 60 of Israel’s 150 animal shelters are already working with Adopt Me Israel.
As a result, Adopt Me has rehomed more than 250 dogs and cats by streamlining the shelter adoption process and ensuring that the animals are healthy upon arrival. This last goal is especially relevant now that Israel is experiencing a rise in rabies reports.
So many sweet dogs
Veterinarian Dr. Tal Assif, director of the Lod municipal animal shelter serving municipalities from Holon and Bat Yam to Hod Hasharon and Rosh Ha’ayin, said the shelter handles approximately 700 dogs and cats per year, plus another 100 animals of other types. Only about 160 shelter animals are adopted annually.
“We started working about a year ago with Adopt Me,” Assif says. “We work with a few other animal advocate organizations, and our cooperation with Adopt Me is unique. It’s a direct route of getting dogs of all breeds, sizes, ages, and temperaments to adoption events that they organize, and we upload available dogs through their app. The more exposure, the more chances you’ll get a home for the dog. It’s a great technology advancement that we really appreciate.”
Through Adopt Me, Assif made a connection with the Agriculture Ministry, which has agreed to fund and launch a shelter renovation project across the country. While the Lod Municipality has been exceptionally supportive of the local shelter, Assif adds, cooperation on the national level didn’t exist. “We felt we were actually being heard for the first time,” he says.
Lipman explains that whereas some animal-welfare organizations are antagonistic to the government, Adopt Me has forged good working relations with the Agriculture Ministry and the Environmental Protection Ministry.
“We are a nonpolitical organization and don’t use the animals as a tool against the government,” she says. “Unfortunately, the Agriculture Ministry is really disconnected from the situation in animal shelters; they haven’t assessed it for a decade. The ministry’s veterinarians work with cows and chickens, not dogs and cats. We are here to work with the ministry and with other animal-welfare associations to make the process more efficient.”
On July 1, Adopt Me Israel held a conference of leaders from all Israeli animal-welfare charities and shelters, with the aim of forming working relationships and sharing ideas. The gathering was hosted at Microsoft Reactor in Tel Aviv.
“The most important thing,” says Assif, “is people being aware that so many sweet dogs are waiting for a loving home – waiting for you to come and adopt them.”
Social media, in-person adoption days
Adopt Me Israel’s marketing division works with shelters’ social-media teams and with influencers to raise awareness of the situation and encourage people to adopt rather than buy dogs from pet shops or breeders.
Adopt Me Israel volunteers also work offline, bringing puppies on weekends from the overburdened shelters to cafés in Tel Aviv or Modi’in, where there are many people open to pet adoption.
“People are having breakfast and hugging puppies. Hopefully they will fall in love with them and take them home. It’s a nicer experience than going to a shelter, which can be traumatizing,” says Lipman. “So many people are not aware that there are shelters near where they live. We have a long way to go in spreading awareness of how people can adopt dogs.”
Cats are in need of homes, too.
Adopt Me Israel volunteer Shani Peretz, an Instagram influencer, posted a humorous, awareness-raising reel in which her boyfriend proudly shows her a cat he adopted in reaction to a text message. The SMS seemingly indicated that Peretz wanted a pet of her own (ani rotzah ba’al hayim sheli). She really meant she wanted a husband (ani rotzah ba’al, hayim sheli) but left out the comma.
In reality, of course, the adoption of Thiago the cat was carried out with full intention.
Izzy finds a family
Last February, Yavne residents Eilat and Yossi and their 10-year-old daughter, Ariel, were seeking a new pet after Oshrit, one of their two dogs, died at age 17. The remaining dog, Hugo, was lonely.
“First we searched Facebook groups, Yad2, and Google. We saw hundreds of posts about dogs for adoption, but the spark hadn’t happened yet. We hadn’t yet met the dog that felt right for us,” Eilat says.
Then they tried the Adopt Me app. “It really felt like Tinder, only for animals. You swipe right if there’s a spark, or move on to the next star.”
Eilat swiped left until she came across Romi, “a small, brown lump of sweetness and wisdom” waiting for a home at the Gilboa animal shelter. At the first opportunity, the family drove two hours north to meet Romi, whom they renamed Izzy.
“As soon as we met her, we knew we had made the right choice,” Eilat says. “All the information we received about her – her age, size, character, energy level, and needs – was completely accurate. This is a very important detail for any family adopting a dog.”
Eilat notes that the efficient coordination between Adopt Me Israel and the shelter made Izzy’s adoption process “exciting, accessible, simple, and convenient.”
After the family headed home with its new pet, “Izzy slept the entire way on Ariel’s lap, and all our hearts were filled again,” Eilat says. When Izzy was introduced to Hugo, “he received her gently and patiently like a true gentleman.”
Izzy’s brother is still living at the shelter. “Like him, thousands of other dogs across the country are still waiting for a family to choose them,” Eilat says. “I wish more people would choose to adopt instead of buy.”
Dramatically reducing failed adoptions
Reuven Ashenberg, a QA engineer and fundraiser who volunteers with Adopt Me, notes that many people become frustrated with the fragmented process that Adopt Me is striving to change, and eventually choose to purchase animals instead of adopting them.
At the same time, more pets are homeless than ever before due to rising abandonment, neglect, abuse, and violent acts, including intentional poisoning.
“The founders believed that Israel, the Start-Up Nation, had the talent, technology, and innovation to solve this problem. While hi-tech had transformed many industries, animal welfare had largely been left behind.”
Adopt Me’s app not only provides real-time information about available pets but also offers educational content, articles, and videos designed to help adopters make informed decisions and become responsible pet owners.
The organization provides post-adoption support as well, helping owners navigate issues that may arise after bringing a new pet home.
“By supporting families after adoption, Adopt Me aims to dramatically reduce failed adoptions and keep animals in permanent homes,” he says.
Ashenberg adds that people who cannot adopt a pet can help shelter animals through the organization in other ways.
“You can provide a temporary home for pets in need, with support and benefits; you can assist with pet transport, events, and community efforts; or you can donate to help us continue making a meaningful difference in the lives of animals and families,” he says.
The nonprofit also is supported by the Merit Spread Foundation, Check Point, Intel, and IBI Investment House.
“The Torah teaches compassion toward all living creatures and emphasizes humanity’s responsibility to care for animals with dignity and kindness,” he says.
“Through education, adoption, and community involvement, Adopt Me seeks to bring those values into practical action by protecting vulnerable animals and helping them find loving homes.
“To achieve that goal, the organization is seeking sponsors, strategic partners, investors, and supporters who share the belief that Israel can lead not only in technology, but also in compassion.”