Terms of Service

Last updated: May 22, 2026 · Effective immediately

These terms govern your use of House Tiger™ ("the site", "we", "us"). By using the site you agree to them. They are written in plain English. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the site.

1. What House Tiger is (and isn't)

House Tiger is a product-rating website for cat owners. It computes scores from real owner reports and retail review data, and offers a free personalized "My Cat" tool that generates product picks plus a wellness note based on a profile you fill in.

House Tiger is not:

A veterinary clinic or licensed medical service. Nothing on this site is veterinary advice.
A retailer. We do not sell, ship, return, or refund any product. All purchases happen on third-party retailer sites under their own terms.
A laboratory or DNA testing service (yet). When the DNA service launches, it'll have its own additional terms.
A substitute for human judgment. Recommendations are a starting point; you know your cat best.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use the My Cat tool. If you're between 13 and 18, you may browse the site but should not provide personal information without a parent or guardian's permission. House Tiger is not intended for children under 13.

3. Accounts

Accounts are optional. If you sign up:

Authentication is by magic link — we email you a 6-digit code. We never store passwords.
You're responsible for keeping your email account secure. Anyone with access to your email can sign in as you.
You may delete your account at any time by emailing hello@housetiger.org. We'll remove your account and associated cat profiles.
We may suspend accounts that abuse the service (rate-limit violations, attempted attacks, scraping).

4. Acceptable use

When using House Tiger, you agree NOT to:

Reverse-engineer, scrape at scale, or bulk-extract data from the site.
Attempt prompt-injection, jailbreaks, or other attacks against the AI features. Detected attempts are logged.
Attempt to access admin endpoints, other users' data, or any non-public functionality.
Submit content that's illegal, defamatory, harassing, or that infringes anyone's rights.
Use the service to deceive others — e.g., misrepresenting recommendations from the site.
Resell, rebrand, or commercially redistribute the site's content without permission.

5. Not veterinary advice — important

Read this carefully. Everything on House Tiger — the wellness notes, product picks, suggested articles, signal findings — is general informational content. It is not a diagnosis, treatment plan, prescription, or substitute for in-person veterinary care. The site is not a licensed veterinary practice.

Always consult a licensed veterinarian before:

Starting, stopping, or changing your cat's diet — especially for cats with health conditions.
Making decisions about supplements, medications, or treatments.
Acting on any health concern, however minor it might seem.

If your cat is showing signs of urgent illness — labored breathing, straining to urinate, repeated vomiting, lethargy, sudden behavior change — contact a veterinarian or pet emergency line immediately. Do not rely on this site.

6. AI-generated content

The wellness note in the My Cat tool is, by default, generated by a large language model (Claude, Llama via Cerebras, or Groq's hosted models). LLMs sometimes produce inaccurate or oddly-phrased content despite our safeguards.

We label AI output with a "⚙ AI-generated" tag and a footnote explaining its source.
You can opt out of AI at any time by unchecking the AI toggle in the My Cat form. The site will use a deterministic rule-based summary instead.
You should review AI-generated content critically and verify anything important with your vet.
We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or fitness-for-purpose of any AI output.

7. Affiliate disclosure

House Tiger participates in affiliate programs (Chewy, Amazon, PetSmart, Petco, and others). When you click a buy link and complete a purchase, the site may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This does not influence product rankings. The Cat Score and product ordering are computed deterministically from real owner reports and retail data; we do not accept payment to promote products.

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House Tiger participates in affiliate programs with Chewy, Amazon, PetSmart, Petco, and a handful of others. When you click a "Find best price" link and complete a purchase, the site may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This does not influence product rankings. The Cat Score and product ordering are computed deterministically from real owner reports and retail data. We do not accept payment to promote products, and we will not. That is the load-bearing commitment behind every other promise on this page: if the rankings could be bought, the site has no reason to exist.

>>>>>>> 97bef80 (modifying affiliate disclosure, about, adding section: What we believe, modified Why I built this)

8. Third-party services & links

Clicking a buy link takes you to a third-party retailer (Chewy, Amazon, etc.). Once you leave House Tiger, you're subject to the retailer's terms, privacy policy, and conduct. House Tiger has no control over their services, pricing, shipping, returns, or product quality.

House Tiger also relies on third-party services for hosting (Render), AI model hosting (Cerebras, Groq, Anthropic), domain registration (Wix), and affiliate tracking (Impact, CJ Affiliate, Amazon Associates). See the Privacy Policy for details.

9. Intellectual property

House Tiger™ is a trademark with intent-to-use registration pending with the USPTO. The brand name, logo, "tiger" striped letterforms, the DNA-helix glyph, the site copy, and the underlying database structure are owned by House Tiger and protected by copyright and trademark law.

You may not copy, redistribute, or reuse House Tiger's branding, code, or compiled data without written permission. Product information shown on the site (brand, model, photos) is the property of the respective manufacturers and retailers; we display it under fair-use product reference.

10. Content you submit

If you create a cat profile, you grant House Tiger a limited, non-exclusive license to use that data only to:

Generate product picks and the wellness note for you.
Compute aggregate, non-identifying analytics about what cat profiles are common.

We do not sell your cat profile data. We do not use it to train AI models. You can delete it at any time.

11. Disclaimer of warranties

The site is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind — express or implied — including (but not limited to) merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement.

We do not warrant that:

The site will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.
Product information, prices, or availability shown is current — retailer sites are authoritative.
AI-generated content is accurate or appropriate for your situation.
Suggested products will be liked by your cat (cats are individuals).

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law, House Tiger and its operators are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages — including loss of profits, data, goodwill, or any damages arising from:

Your reliance on AI-generated wellness notes or rule-based suggestions.
Any product you purchase via an affiliate link.
Veterinary outcomes related (or unrelated) to information on the site.
Service outages, data loss, or security incidents.

If, despite this, we are found liable, our total liability for all claims will not exceed $100 USD or the amount you paid us (currently zero — the service is free) in the 12 months preceding the claim, whichever is greater.

13. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless House Tiger and its operators from any claim or demand arising out of your use of the site, your violation of these terms, or your violation of any third party's rights.

14. Termination

You may stop using the site (and delete your account) at any time. We may suspend or terminate access if you violate these terms, abuse the service, or for any reason at our reasonable discretion, with notice where practical.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the service evolves. Material changes will be noted at the top of this page with a revised "Last updated" date. Continued use after a change constitutes acceptance. If a change is significant and you have an account, we'll try to notify you by email.

16. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of [Your State], USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in that state, and you consent to the jurisdiction of those courts.

Note: Update "[Your State]" to whichever U.S. state you're operating from before launch. A common choice for hobby/solo projects is the state where the operator resides.

17. Severability & entire agreement

If any provision of these terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in effect. These terms, plus the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and House Tiger about the service.

18. Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@housetiger.org

These terms are provided for informational reference. They are not legal advice. Before launching commercially or accepting paying users, please have a licensed attorney review and tailor them to your jurisdiction and business specifics.