1. Registration and documentary verification
To register as a shelter, you must evidence the activity to Mizuu:
- Company/charity registration number of the entity (association, foundation, federation, etc.).
- Registration with the relevant register of animal rescue organisations / animal activity licence. Valid registration number.
- Governing documents in PDF format.
- Legal representative's details: full name, ID document, email and phone.
- Bank verification: the holder of the provided bank account must match the holder of the registration (or provide formal authorisation).
- Selfie of the representative holding photo ID to rule out impersonation.
The Mizuu team reviews the documentation by hand. In the meantime, your shelter is under review: you can prepare your profile and your animals as drafts, but they don't appear publicly until we approve it. If something is missing or we reject it, we tell you the specific reason and how to provide it.
2. Shelter obligations
The shelter undertakes to:
- Operate under applicable animal welfare legislation and local regulations.
- Publish only pets that are under its legal custody and available for adoption.
- Keep each animal's status up to date (in treatment, available, reserved, adopted, withdrawn with reason).
- Vet candidates before approving a transfer, assessing real suitability.
- Sign the adoption contract and hand over the animal identified with a microchip, with the vaccines that apply and neutered when the rules require it (Law 7/2023 and regional regulations), facilitating the change of ownership in the regional registry.
- Remain contactable for post-adoption and follow-up.
- Accept the adopter's right to terminate if there are causes attributable to the shelter.
- Not require the adopter, as a condition for adopting, to buy products or services (pet food, subscriptions, specific clinics). Mizuu offers them separately and optionally.
3. Accuracy of published data
The shelter is responsible for the information it uploads about each animal: photo, species, breed, age, weight, health, microchip, description. It is the shelter's obligation to declare any known pathologies or special conditions, avoiding concealment that harms the adopter or the animal.
Any well-founded report of false or misleading information may trigger a review and, where appropriate, suspension.
4. Mizuu balance
The adoption donation collected through the "Mizuu balance" channel accumulates in a nominative account of the shelter within the system.
The balance:
- Is nominative, non-transferable and not exchangeable for money except by formal withdrawal request.
- Can only be used on (i) veterinary invoices within the Mizuu network, (ii) food or accessories from the Mizuu catalogue.
- If a veterinary invoice exceeds the available balance, Mizuu pays up to the total available and the shelter covers the difference directly with the clinic.
- Withdrawals to a bank account can be requested from the dashboard and are processed after administrative review (indicative timeframe: 3-5 business days).
5. Contribution to the Solidarity Fund and subscriptions
The shelter takes part in several distribution mechanisms:
- Solidarity shop — proportional distribution of the common fund among active verified shelters.
- Food subscriptions — of the net profit from each payment, 15% directly to the animal's original shelter and 20% as a contribution to the shared Solidarity Fund. Applies throughout the animal's life in the Mizuu network, as long as the shelter remains verified and active.
- Monthly fees from the vet network — 15% of the aggregate net profit is redistributed periodically among active shelters (details in the Solidarity tab of the dashboard).
- Adoption donation credited via the Mizuu balance — in full to the transferring shelter.
6. Anti-fraud defence and disguised sale
Mizuu does not allow the disguised sale of animals under the guise of a "donation". To detect and prevent this practice:
- Mizuu automatically cross-checks the donation amount against the real cost recorded in the animal's veterinary history when the network is used.
- Donations above the median for their species/breed trigger a review.
- Suspicious patterns (more than 5 consecutive contracts at a high amount without correlated vet invoices; batches of animals adopted quickly at high prices) generate a mandatory review.
- Adopter reports ("they sold it to me") trigger a precautionary block of the balance and a full audit of the entity.
7. Blocking and termination
Mizuu may freeze the balance and, where appropriate, redistribute it to the shared Solidarity Fund following an adversarial procedure if any of the following circumstances arise:
- Inactivity exceeding 24 months with no movements.
- Cancellation or expiry of the official registration.
- Manifest breach of governing documents or of the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
- Well-founded indications of disguised sale or use of the balance outside its purpose.
- Voluntary closure or dissolution of the entity.
The affected shelter will be notified and will have a period to make representations (minimum 15 days). The final decision is notified in writing and can be appealed. Where appropriate, Mizuu may report to the competent local authority and to the police or the RSPCA when the facts may constitute an offence.
8. Adopter data
The shelter processes adopter data (name, email, phone, adoption form data and the last four digits of the ID document verified by Mizuu) for the sole purpose of assessing the application, formalising the transfer and carrying out post-adoption follow-up.
The shelter is the data controller of the data of its applicants, adopters, foster carers and volunteers. Mizuu is its data processor to store and manage them on the platform, under the data processing agreement that is accepted when the shelter signs up.
The shelter is expressly prohibited from using this data for different purposes (marketing, transfer to third parties, etc.) without the adopter's express consent.
9. Voluntary deregistration
The shelter can request deregistration at any time. Mizuu will settle the outstanding balance in accordance with the agreed method (bank account or redistribution to the Solidarity Fund if the entity wishes). Formalised adoptions will remain under follow-up and outstanding financial commitments with adopters (active subscriptions) will continue to run until their expiry or cancellation, maintaining the corresponding distribution.
