1. Eligibility and Authority
You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under the age of legal majority where you live, you may use it only with the permission and supervision of a parent or legal guardian who accepts these Terms. If you use the Service for an organization or another person, you represent that you have authority to bind them, and "you" includes that organization or person.
2. What the Service Does
CritterHelp provides information and technology that may help people locate and communicate with independent wildlife rehabilitators, wildlife control operators, agencies, volunteers, and other resources. The Service also offers tools for directory listings, help and intake requests, case management, dispatch, transportation coordination, volunteer management, donation-pledge tracking, widgets, APIs, webhooks, and third-party integrations.
3. No Professional Relationship or Guarantee
Using the Service, viewing a listing, or submitting a request does not create a professional, agency, employment, partnership, fiduciary, veterinary, or client relationship between you and CritterHelp or between you and any listed party. We do not guarantee that a provider is available, will accept a case, serves a particular location or species, is free or affordable, or will achieve a particular result.
Wildlife information is general and may not fit a specific animal, species, property, disease risk, law, or circumstance. It is not veterinary, medical, legal, regulatory, or professional wildlife-control advice. Always consult a qualified local professional and applicable authorities.
4. Accounts and Security
Some features require an account. You must provide accurate, current information; keep it updated; maintain the confidentiality of your credentials and API keys; and promptly notify us of suspected unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity under your account and for people you authorize to use it. You may not share credentials in a manner that defeats role-based access or misrepresent your identity, qualifications, affiliation, or authority.
5. Listings, Licenses, and Provider Responsibilities
Directory information may be submitted by providers or organizations or obtained from public and authorized sources. Although we may review, normalize, claim, or mark certain information as verified, we do not independently guarantee every listing's identity, ownership, licensing, insurance, certification, service area, pricing, availability, qualifications, or accuracy. A verification indicator applies only to the specific information and time period identified.
A person or organization that creates, claims, or manages a listing represents that it is authorized to do so and must:
- keep public and operational information accurate and current;
- hold all licenses, permits, insurance, and approvals required for its activities;
- comply with animal-welfare, wildlife, veterinary, public-health, consumer-protection, privacy, employment, and other applicable laws;
- clearly disclose its own services, fees, availability, and terms to the people it serves; and
- protect reporter, volunteer, donor, helper, and case information and use it only for legitimate authorized purposes.
Contact us through the contact page to request a listing correction, ownership review, or removal. We may preserve public-source and verification history even if a public listing changes.
6. Help Requests, Intake, Dispatch, and Volunteers
When submitting information about an animal, location, person, or property, you represent that the information is accurate to the best of your knowledge and that you are authorized to provide it. You authorize CritterHelp to route the request and its photos, location, and contact details to appropriate organizations, helpers, volunteers, and integrations as described in our Privacy Policy.
Providers are solely responsible for accepting, declining, transferring, prioritizing, documenting, dispatching, and completing cases. Organizations are responsible for screening, training, supervising, insuring, and lawfully engaging their team members, volunteers, sub-permittees, and transport helpers. Users must not rely on an unconfirmed notification, status, estimated distance, or dispatch as proof that help is on the way.
7. Donation Pledges and Provider Fees
A donation amount submitted through the Service may be a nonbinding pledge recorded for a recipient organization. Unless expressly stated at the point of transaction, CritterHelp does not process the payment, issue a tax receipt, guarantee tax deductibility, or ensure that a pledge is collected or used for a particular purpose. Any payment, refund, receipt, service fee, contract, or dispute is between you and the recipient or service provider. Wildlife control and other professional services may charge fees; a directory listing does not imply free service.
8. User Content
"User Content" means text, listing details, case information, comments, feedback, photos, files, and other materials you submit to the Service. You retain your ownership rights. You grant CritterHelp a worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, format, display, transmit, and otherwise use User Content only as reasonably necessary to operate, secure, improve, and provide the Service, fulfill your requests, and display content you choose to make public. This license lasts while the content is maintained for those purposes, including reasonable backup and legal-retention periods.
You represent that you own or have permission to submit User Content and that our permitted use will not violate another person's intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, contractual, or other rights. Do not upload confidential information, graphic material unrelated to a legitimate wildlife request, or photos of people or private property without appropriate authority. We may remove or restrict content that violates these Terms or may cause harm.
9. Acceptable Use
You may not use the Service to:
- break the law, harm or harass a person or animal, trespass, or facilitate unlawful possession, capture, transport, treatment, trade, or release of wildlife;
- submit false emergencies, fraudulent claims, fake reviews, misleading listings, or information you are not authorized to share;
- impersonate another person, provider, organization, government agency, or licensed professional;
- publish unlawful, defamatory, threatening, obscene, exploitative, infringing, malicious, or privacy-invasive content;
- send spam, unauthorized marketing, or deceptive communications;
- access another account or confidential record without authorization;
- probe, scan, attack, disrupt, overload, reverse engineer, or circumvent security, authentication, access controls, rate limits, or usage restrictions;
- introduce malware or use the Service to develop or train a system in a way that violates law or another person's rights;
- scrape, harvest, bulk download, resell, republish, or create a competing directory or database from Service content without our written permission; or
- use bots or automated tools except through an API or integration we expressly authorize.
10. APIs, Widgets, Webhooks, and Integrations
Access to APIs, widgets, webhooks, and integrations may be subject to documentation, credentials, scopes, rate limits, and additional terms. Credentials and webhook secrets are confidential. You are responsible for your integration's security, legal compliance, notices, consent, and data handling. You may not misrepresent CritterHelp's involvement, frame the Service deceptively, or remove required attribution. We may change, throttle, or revoke access to protect the Service or address misuse.
11. Our Content and Intellectual Property
The Service, including its software, design, selection, arrangement, branding, logos, text, and original content, is owned by CritterHelp or its licensors and protected by intellectual-property laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, nonexclusive, nontransferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for its intended purpose. No other rights are granted. Third-party names and marks belong to their respective owners, and their appearance does not imply endorsement.
12. Feedback
If you send ideas or suggestions, you grant us a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free right to use them without restriction or compensation. Do not submit feedback you consider confidential.
13. Copyright Complaints
If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, email legal@critterhelp.org with identification of the work, the allegedly infringing material and its location, your contact information, a statement of good-faith belief, a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and you are authorized to act, and your physical or electronic signature. We may remove content and terminate repeat infringers where appropriate.
14. Third-Party Services
Listings, links, maps, public records, partner widgets, and integrations may contain or lead to third-party services and content. CritterHelp does not control or endorse them and is not responsible for their availability, accuracy, conduct, security, products, services, fees, terms, or privacy practices. Your dealings with third parties are solely between you and them and are at your own risk.
15. Disclaimer of Warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service and all content are provided "as is" and "as available." CritterHelp disclaims all express, implied, and statutory warranties, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, noninfringement, accuracy, availability, security, and results. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, current, complete, or free of harmful components, or that any listing, location, credential, response, advice, animal outcome, property outcome, or third-party service will be accurate, safe, lawful, or satisfactory.
16. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, CritterHelp and its owners, officers, employees, contractors, affiliates, and agents will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages; loss of data, profits, goodwill, or opportunity; personal injury; animal injury or death; property damage; disease exposure; or claims arising from third-party acts or omissions, even if advised that such damages are possible.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the total liability of the CritterHelp parties for all claims arising from or related to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of $100 or the amount you paid directly to CritterHelp for the Service during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits do not apply where liability cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
17. Indemnification
To the fullest extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the CritterHelp parties from claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, losses, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising from your User Content, organization or professional activities, misuse of the Service, violation of these Terms or law, or infringement of another person's rights. We may control the defense and settlement of a covered claim, and you agree to cooperate.
18. Suspension, Termination, and Service Changes
You may stop using the Service at any time. We may investigate conduct and suspend, restrict, remove, or terminate accounts, listings, content, integrations, or access if we reasonably believe it is necessary to enforce these Terms, protect the Service or others, comply with law, or address risk. We may modify or discontinue any part of the Service without liability. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including ownership, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, and miscellaneous terms.
19. Governing Law and Disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the state in which WildPipe, LLC has its principal place of business, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where applicable law requires otherwise. Before filing a claim, you and CritterHelp agree to make a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute informally by sending a written description to legal@critterhelp.org and allowing 30 days for a response. Any court proceeding must be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction where WildPipe, LLC has its principal place of business, unless applicable law requires another venue.
20. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the revised Terms and update the date above. Material changes may also be communicated through the Service or by email. Unless stated otherwise, changes are effective when posted. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date means you accept the revised Terms.
21. Miscellaneous
These Terms and the Privacy Policy, together with any feature-specific terms, are the entire agreement concerning the Service. If a provision is unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will remain effective. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent; we may assign them in connection with a reorganization, financing, merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. There are no third-party beneficiaries. Electronic communications and signatures satisfy legal writing requirements where permitted.
22. Contact
Questions about these Terms may be sent to WildPipe, LLC at legal@critterhelp.org.