# Balu

> Balu is a German pet adoption platform that connects people with animals waiting in certified animal shelters across Germany. Shelters publish their adoptable animals on Balu, and people browse, filter by species, location and traits, and contact the shelter directly to start an adoption. Adoption listings are free for both shelters and adopters. Balu operates in Germany only.

Shelters list whatever animals are in their care — dogs and cats are the most frequent, but rabbits, rodents, birds, reptiles and others are listed too. Balu works with roughly 350 certified German shelters.

The site is available in German (`/de/`), English (`/en/`) and Russian (`/ru/`). German is the primary language for German shelter content. Listing URLs follow the pattern `/de/pets/[species]` and `/de/pets/[region]/[species]` — for example `/de/pets/berlin/cat` for cats in Berlin. Individual animals live at `/p/[id]` and shelters at `/s/[id]`.

## Adopting a pet

- [Adoptable animals](https://getbalu.com/de/pets): Entry point for adoption listings; redirects to species-specific browsing (dogs, cats and others, below), each filterable by federal state, age, size and breed.
- [Dogs](https://getbalu.com/de/pets/dog): Dogs waiting for a home in German shelters.
- [Cats](https://getbalu.com/de/pets/cat): Cats waiting for a home in German shelters.
- [Other animals](https://getbalu.com/de/pets/others): Rabbits, rodents, birds, reptiles and every other species shelters have listed.
- [Cats in Berlin](https://getbalu.com/de/pets/berlin/cat): Example of a region-filtered listing; the pattern is `/de/pets/[region]/[species]`.

## Shelters

- [Shelter directory](https://getbalu.com/de/shelters): Browse the certified German animal shelters that publish on Balu. Each shelter has a profile at `/s/[id]` with its location, opening hours and currently listed animals.

## Rehoming your own pet

- [Tier abgeben / rehome a pet](https://getbalu.com/de/rehome): For owners who can no longer keep their animal. A guided flow that first explores alternatives to giving the animal up, then helps place it with a shelter. There is a fee and no guarantee of placement.

## Supporting shelters

- [Impact & community](https://getbalu.com/de/impact): Adoption success stories plus public activity from the Balu community, and how support reaches shelters.
- [About Balu](https://getbalu.com/de/about): Who runs Balu and why.
- [Mission](https://getbalu.com/de/mission): Balu's mission and the shelter situation in Germany.

Balu also runs donations and a paid recurring supporting membership (Fördermitgliedschaft) that funds partner shelters. Both are reachable from the pages above and from individual shelter profiles.

## Optional

- [Homepage (German)](https://getbalu.com/de): Entry point with featured animals.
- [English site](https://getbalu.com/en): English translation of the platform.
- [Russian site](https://getbalu.com/ru): Russian translation of the platform.