My Little Mate

My Little Mate is making it easier for pet buyers to find the best pet breeders and adoption organisations in Australia.

We are on a mission to change the narrative around pets. We want people to think less about whether their pet is a pedigree, cross breed or a rescue pet and think more about whether it is healthy, socialised and perfectly matched to you.

My Little Mate is an app and website that wants to shine a light on the good guys of pet breeding and adoption world.

What we are doing is:

1. Asking adoption and pet breeders of cats and dogs to list in one place
When you list your pet on My Little Mate, you select location, temperament details, exercise levels and other descriptors. By filtering on these, pet buyers will receive a comprehensive list of cats, dogs, recues, pedigree and cross breeds that fit your bill. This list may give pet buyers options they may not have even considered!

2. eCommerce platform
“Oh, that cavoodle is gorgeous and totally what we need! Let me deposit $3500 into an account of a man I’ve never laid eyes for a dog I haven’t met and wait patiently for my beautiful new puppy”. Please don’t do this!

My Little Mate is an eCommerce platform where you will pay a holding deposit for the pet you are interested in buying. The money will be held in a holding account until the pet buyer and the seller can come together (online or in person) to meet and greet, see the pet and agree they are a match. Balance is paid when the pet is ready to go home. Transactions are recorded and dispute resolution is available.

3. Familiar functionality
We have designed My Little Mate to have familiar functionality… well, familiar for some anyway. Swipe left, swipe right, shortlist, agree to meet. You can browse for hours or commit to meeting to finding out more about the pet you have fallen in love with.

4. Validation of breeders by third party
We take the responsibility of due diligence away from pet buyer by validating the authenticity of every pet seller who wants to list with us.

Our QA process is similar (but more comprehensive) to what a buyer should do before they purchase a pet. If the pet seller does not pass our checks, they don’t get to list their pets.

5. Prioritise breeders that are doing more
Transparency is key to making good pet choices.

My Little Mate will prioritise breeders and rescues who conduct genetic and DNA tests, who microchip, vaccinate and desex, who have proper breeding programs, who are registered with a pet associations, have ABN’s and who are happy for people to visit, meet the pet parents and see their facilities.

These breeders will provide guarantees to the health of the pets that they are selling and will take them back if the match doesn’t work out. This is what a great breeder looks like.

Breeders and adoption organisations can upload all this information to their profile for pet buyers to review before the pet has even been shortlisted.

Our view on ‘adopt don’t shop’

As responsible pet owners, we recognise there is an overpopulation of rescue animals in Australia and the message to ‘adopt not shop’ is incredibly important. We support this message. We support no kill refuges for rescues.

We also know that rescue/adoption animals are not suited to every home. Reality is, there will always be demand for pedigree and cross-bred animals, and we know there will always be pet breeders breeding them.

My Little Mate wants to make a positive impact on the pet industry by assisting pet buyers to make more confident, informed choices about where they get their pet from. We want to create a marketplace for the best pet breeders and adoption organisation to come together to list their animals.

We think every little mate deserves their best life, with their best life partner.