Small Dog RescueSouth Africa

Privacy Policy

Small Dog Rescue South Africa operates SmallDogRescue.co.za as a guidance and referral platform. This notice explains the information the website processes and the choices available to you. It does not claim legal certification or guarantee absolute security.

1. Who Operates This Website

Small Dog Rescue South Africa is the website operator and referral coordinator. Privacy questions, access requests and deletion requests may be sent through the contact page or to littledoggyrescue@gmail.com.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information only when needed for a stated website function:

  • Contact and correction forms: name, email address, reason for contact, optional organisation details and message content.
  • Partner-inclusion requests: organisation identity, website, contact details, registration information supplied by the applicant, provinces, breeds, services and supporting description.
  • Assisted-rehoming requests: name, telephone number, optional email address, town and province; the reason and urgency; ownership or authority; and dog details such as breed or type, age, sex, known sterilisation and health status, behaviour, safety concerns and current circumstances.
  • Consent and attribution records: consent confirmation and limited campaign/referrer information captured from the page visit. Sensitive rehoming answers are not placed in public URLs.
  • Consent-based analytics: page views, general interaction events, device/browser information and broad referral context after analytics consent is granted.

The assisted-rehoming form currently accepts text and selections, not public file uploads. Do not submit information you are not authorised to share.

3. Why We Use Information

  • To respond to enquiries, corrections and partner-inclusion requests.
  • To review an assisted-rehoming case and identify a suitable breed-specific, general rescue or welfare route.
  • To prepare and, where appropriate and consented to, share a referral with an independent rescue organisation.
  • To prevent spam, validate submissions, investigate technical failures and maintain website security.
  • To measure non-sensitive website use and referral activity after analytics consent.

4. Assisted Referrals and Independent Partners

Assisted-rehoming details are sent over HTTPS to a Cloudflare Pages Function and then to an access-controlled operational queue. A person reviews the case before referral. The form does not automatically guarantee or complete a surrender, adoption, placement, transport or intake.

With your recorded consent, relevant case and contact information may be shared with one or more independent rescue or welfare organisations that may be appropriate for the dog and circumstances. Only information reasonably needed for that referral should be shared. Each receiving organisation is independently responsible for its own decisions, records, security and privacy practices. Review its policy before continuing where available.

5. Analytics and Cookies

Google Analytics 4 loads only after affirmative analytics consent. If you decline, the analytics library is not loaded by this website. Analytics events describe page and feature use; they do not receive names, email addresses, telephone numbers, form answers, dog medical or behavioural details, or assisted-rehoming references.

Analytics data is configured for a 14-month retention period. We do not use advertising cookies or personalised advertising. You may change your choice through the Cookie Settings link in the footer or clear this site’s stored consent setting.

6. Storage, Retention and Deletion

Assisted-rehoming cases are held in a private, access-controlled queue for operational follow-up and are reviewed for deletion within 24 months, unless a shorter period is appropriate, you request earlier deletion, or a lawful reason requires limited further retention. Contact and partner-inclusion information is kept only as long as reasonably needed to handle the request, maintain an audit trail or meet a lawful obligation.

Backups and service-provider systems may take a reasonable period to complete deletion. We do not sell or rent personal information.

7. Service Providers and Cross-Border Processing

The website uses Cloudflare for hosting and request processing, Google infrastructure for the private assisted-rehoming queue, and Google Analytics after consent. These providers may process technical or submitted data on infrastructure outside South Africa under their own contractual and security arrangements.

8. Security and Data Minimisation

Controls include HTTPS, server-side validation, allowlists for structured fields, spam protection, access controls and limits on operational logging. Contact details and form answers are not deliberately written to analytics events or routine function logs. No online service can guarantee absolute security; please avoid including unrelated identity documents, financial details or unnecessary third-party information.

9. Your Choices and Requests

You may ask whether we hold personal information about you, request access or correction, withdraw referral consent, object to particular processing where applicable, or request deletion subject to lawful and operational limits. Contact us using the details above and provide enough information to identify the relevant submission without sending unnecessary sensitive data.

10. Complaints and Escalation

Please raise a privacy concern with the website operator first so it can be investigated. If the issue is not resolved, you may contact South Africa’s Information Regulator through its official channels. Welfare emergencies should be directed to the appropriate local SPCA, veterinarian or emergency service rather than the privacy contact.

11. Changes to This Notice

We may update this notice when forms, service providers, retention practices or legal requirements change. Material implementation changes should be reviewed against this page before release.

Last updated: 14 July 2026.