Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

Who we are: definitions and affiliated companies

"Axolotl City", "we", "us" and "our" mean Axolotl City, an online publication headquartered in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada, together with its affiliated companies. "Affiliated companies" means A Lot'l Axolotls (alotlaxolotls.ca) and every parent, subsidiary, sister brand, joint venture or other business that is owned or controlled by, or under common ownership or control with, Axolotl City now or in the future, in any jurisdiction (together, the "A Lot'l Group").

"Covered Parties" means every member of the A Lot'l Group and each of their respective owners, directors, officers, employees, contractors, volunteers, moderators, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors and assigns. Every disclaimer, limitation of liability, assumption of risk, release and indemnity in these Terms is given for the benefit of all Covered Parties, each of whom may enforce it directly as an intended third-party beneficiary.

"You" means the person using the Services and, where you act for a business, that business as well. "Content" means text, images, video, audio, code, data, guides, calculators, checklists, listings and everything else made available through the Services.

Acceptance of these Terms

By accessing, browsing or interacting with the Services in any way, including viewing content, using a calculator or checklist, submitting a form, subscribing to a newsletter, following a link to a partner company or to an affiliated company, or clicking any link on the site, you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. Clicking a button labelled "Subscribe", "Submit" or similar, or continuing to use the Services after an update, has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature. If you do not agree, you must not use the Services.

Where a specific tool, program or page has its own terms, those terms apply in addition to these; if they conflict, the specific terms govern that item only. Purchases from A Lot'l Axolotls and participation in The Lot'l Pond are governed by the A Lot'l Axolotls Terms of Service.

Eligibility and accurate information

Axolotl City does not offer user accounts. You must be at least eighteen (18) years old, or the age of majority where you live, to submit a form, subscribe to a newsletter or send us content; younger visitors may read the Services only under the direct supervision of a parent or legal guardian who accepts these Terms on their behalf and is responsible for their conduct. Accounts for The Lot'l Pond are created with A Lot'l Axolotls under its terms. You agree that any information you give us is true, accurate, current and complete.

Prohibited uses

You agree not to, and not to help anyone else to: (a) use the Services for any unlawful purpose or in breach of any law, including laws on the ownership, sale, import or transport of animals; (b) misrepresent your identity, age, location or the legality of keeping an axolotl where you live; (c) access, tamper with or use non-public areas of the Services, our systems or those of our providers; (d) probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any system or breach any security measure; (e) use any robot, spider, scraper, crawler, headless browser or other automated means to access, copy or index the Services beyond what our robots.txt permits, or to harvest emails or content; (f) copy, reproduce, download or use our content, photographs, calculators or checklists to train, fine-tune or evaluate any machine-learning or AI system, or to build a competing dataset, product or service; (g) frame, mirror or deep-link to the Services for commercial purposes; (h) reverse-engineer or attempt to extract the source of any part of the Services; (i) interfere with or disrupt the Services, servers or networks, or impose an unreasonable load on them; (j) upload viruses, malware or harmful code; (k) impersonate any person or Covered Party, or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone; (l) send spam, chain messages or unsolicited commercial messages; (m) abuse a promotion, referral or affiliate program; or (n) use the Services to harm, harass, stalk or exploit any person, including a child.

We may investigate any suspected breach, involve law enforcement, and suspend or block access without notice. You are responsible for the losses we and the Covered Parties suffer because of your breach.

Copyright, trademarks and our content

All content on the Services, including care guides, articles, calculators, checklists, photographs, illustrations, videos, software, page layouts, the "Axolotl City", "A Lot'l Axolotls" and "The Lot'l Pond" names and logos, and the compilation of all of it, is owned by or licensed to the A Lot'l Group and protected by Canadian and international copyright, trademark and other intellectual-property laws. Copyright © 2026 Axolotl City. All rights reserved. Where an article credits an external source, rights in that material remain with the source.

You may view, print and download a single copy of pages for your personal, non-commercial use only, provided you keep all copyright and proprietary notices intact and, if you share a page, link back to it. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly display, modify, create derivative works from, sell, license, scrape or commercially exploit any content without our prior written permission. Nothing in these Terms transfers any ownership or grants any licence, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, under any patent, copyright, trademark or other right of the A Lot'l Group or any third party, except as expressly stated.

Other brand, product and service names appearing on the Services belong to their respective owners. Reference to a product, service or process does not imply endorsement, approval, affiliation or sponsorship by the A Lot'l Group.

Content you send us

You keep ownership of the photos, corrections, suggestions, testimonials, form submissions and other material you send us ("User Content"). You grant the A Lot'l Group a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid, sublicensable and transferable licence to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publish, publicly display and perform, distribute and create derivative works of your User Content, in any media now known or later developed, for the purposes of operating, promoting and improving the Services and the businesses of the A Lot'l Group, including on social media, in advertising, on alotlaxolotls.ca and in The Lot'l Pond. To the extent permitted by law, you waive, and agree not to assert, any moral rights in your User Content against the Covered Parties and their licensees. Where you ask to be credited, we will credit you by the name you give.

You represent and warrant that you own or have all rights needed to send your User Content and to grant this licence; that it is accurate; that it does not infringe or misappropriate anyone's copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other rights; and that it does not contain the personal information of any other person without their consent. We are not obliged to publish, keep or return any User Content, and we may remove, edit or refuse any of it at any time for any reason without notice. You may ask us to stop using material you sent; we will do so within a reasonable time, except where it has already been incorporated into published content in a way that cannot practically be undone.

Copyright complaints

We respect the intellectual property of others and comply with Canada's notice-and-notice regime under the Copyright Act and, where applicable, comparable laws elsewhere. If you believe content on the Services infringes your copyright, email [email protected] with: your name and contact details; a description and the URL of the material; a description of the work you say is infringed and evidence that you own it; and a statement, made in good faith, that the use is not authorised. We may remove or disable access to the material and forward your notice to the person who supplied it. Knowingly false complaints may make you liable for the resulting costs.

Feedback and suggestions

If you send us ideas, suggestions, feature requests, testimonials or other feedback, you agree that we may use them for any purpose, without restriction, attribution or payment, and that they become the property of the A Lot'l Group. Do not send us anything you consider confidential or proprietary.

Privacy and data

Our Privacy Policy explains what personal information the A Lot'l Group collects, why, how it is shared (including among affiliated companies and with service providers) and how it is protected. By using the Services you acknowledge that you have read it. We comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial, US state and other privacy laws. If these Terms and the Privacy Policy conflict about personal information, the Privacy Policy governs. We do not sell personal information.

Electronic communications and notices

You consent to receive communications from the A Lot'l Group electronically, including replies to your messages, legal notices and, where you have consented under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, marketing emails and newsletters. You agree that agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications we provide electronically satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing. You may withdraw marketing consent at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email.

Notices from us to you are deemed received when sent to the email address you gave us, or when posted on the Services if addressed to all users. Notices from you to us must be sent to [email protected] and are deemed received on the next business day.

The Lot'l Pond community

The Lot'l Pond is a shared community operated by the A Lot'l Group for members of A Lot'l Axolotls and Axolotl City. It is hosted by A Lot'l Axolotls at alotlaxolotls.ca; membership, posting, conduct, moderation and everything else you do there are governed by the A Lot'l Axolotls Terms of Service, which you accept when you join. Axolotl City displays public community activity (topic titles, excerpts, board names, display names and reply counts) and links into the community, but does not host accounts or user-generated content.

Advice, opinions and care information posted by members are their own, are not reviewed for accuracy and are not endorsed by the A Lot'l Group; acting on them is at your own risk. The Covered Parties are not responsible for any content posted by members or for the conduct of any member, online or offline.

Transactions between members

Any sale, trade, gift, rehoming, shipping arrangement or other transaction arranged between members of The Lot'l Pond, whether on a Buy and sell board, by direct message or otherwise, is solely between those members. The A Lot'l Group is not a party to it, does not verify members, animals, goods or claims, does not hold funds, and provides no guarantee of legality, quality, health, safety, delivery or payment. You are solely responsible for complying with all laws that apply to buying, selling, shipping or transporting animals, and for any dispute with another member. If you have a dispute with another member, you release the Covered Parties from all claims, demands and damages of every kind arising out of or connected with that dispute.

Children

The Services are written for a general audience and are not directed at children under thirteen (13). Some articles are written to help parents and teachers explain axolotls to children; those articles do not ask for, and must not be used to submit, any information about a child. A parent or guardian who lets a child read the Services accepts these Terms on the child's behalf, is responsible for the child's use, and accepts full responsibility for the child's safety around animals, water, chemicals and aquarium or electrical equipment. The kids' learning hub operated by A Lot'l Axolotls has its own rules in the A Lot'l Axolotls Terms of Service.

Not veterinary, medical or professional advice

Nothing on the Services, including care guides, articles, calculators, checklists, dosage or treatment information, community posts, videos, emails, social posts, and anything said by our team, is veterinary, medical, legal, financial or other professional advice, and no veterinarian-client-patient relationship is created. All content is provided for general information and educational purposes only and reflects the experience of hobbyists and breeders, not a professional opinion about your animal or your circumstances. It does not substitute for, and must not be used in place of, examination, diagnosis and treatment by a licensed veterinarian.

If your axolotl or any other animal is sick, injured or behaving abnormally, seek help from a qualified veterinarian promptly, and in an emergency contact an emergency animal hospital. Never delay, disregard or discontinue professional veterinary care because of something you read on the Services. Medications, salt or tea baths, temperature changes, fridging, water treatments and every other intervention described on the Services carry risk, vary with the animal, the product and local regulations, and may be prescription-only or illegal to use on animals where you live; any intervention you carry out is done at your own risk and is your sole responsibility. Where content describes a medication or chemical, you must read and follow the manufacturer's label and the law where you live.

Assumption of risk, animal welfare and safety

You acknowledge that keeping live animals and aquariums involves inherent risks that cannot be eliminated, including illness, injury or death of animals; disease transmission between animals; bites or skin irritation; water leaks, flooding and water damage to property; electrical hazards from heaters, lights, pumps, chillers and filters; injuries from glass, chemicals and sharp objects; and the transmission of zoonotic diseases. Amphibians and aquarium water can carry Salmonella and other organisms that can make people ill, particularly young children, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with a weakened immune system. Wash your hands with soap after touching animals, water, tanks or equipment; never wash aquarium equipment in a kitchen sink; and never let children put hands or objects from the tank in their mouths.

You voluntarily assume all of these risks, and all risks of using an online service (including data loss, unauthorised access and inaccurate content), whether or not they are listed here and whether they arise from negligence or otherwise. You are solely responsible for the welfare of any animal in your care, for quarantining new animals away from existing ones, for the water quality, temperature and equipment of your aquarium, and for complying with animal-welfare and animal-keeping laws where you live. The Covered Parties are not responsible for the health, behaviour, growth, breeding or lifespan of any animal, or for any disease, injury or loss suffered by any animal, person or property.

Interactive tools and calculators

Our calculators, checklists and other interactive tools (for example the tank size calculator, the morph genetics calculator and the new-owner checklist) are simplified educational models. They estimate; they do not guarantee. Tank requirements, breeding outcomes, treatment responses and every other result vary with factors the tools cannot know, including hidden genetics, water chemistry, equipment and the individual animal. Progress saved by a checklist is stored only in your own browser and may be lost if you clear your browser data. You use the tools at your own risk and remain responsible for every decision about your animals.

AI-generated and AI-assisted content

Photographs on the Services are real photographs of real animals, tanks and products from Axolotl City, A Lot'l Axolotls or our community unless a page states otherwise. Some text on the Services may be drafted or edited with the help of artificial-intelligence tools and then reviewed by our team; where an article states that an image is AI-generated or illustrative, it must not be relied on as a depiction of any specific animal, product or result. We make no representation about the accuracy of AI-assisted content beyond the general disclaimers in these Terms.

Marketplace, affiliate links and partner companies

Axolotl City does not sell anything and is not a party to any purchase. Every listing in our Marketplace, and every product mentioned in our content, is sold by a third party ("partner company") — including Amazon, other retailers, registered breeders, and our affiliated company A Lot'l Axolotls, which sells under its own terms. When you buy from a partner company you are contracting with that company, not with us. Links to those products may be affiliate links: if you click one and make a purchase, a member of the A Lot'l Group may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, Axolotl City earns from qualifying purchases. We also participate in other affiliate, referral and advertising programs from time to time, and our affiliated companies may earn commissions on links from their sites to ours or from ours to theirs. Our Affiliate Disclosure explains these relationships, including our common ownership with A Lot'l Axolotls, in plain language.

The A Lot'l Group does not manufacture, stock, inspect, test, ship or support products sold by other partner companies, and the Covered Parties are not responsible for their price, availability, description, quality, safety, suitability for any animal, delivery, warranty, recalls, returns, refunds or customer service, or for the content, security, privacy practices or terms of any partner company's website. Product information shown for third-party products is supplied by the partner company and may be inaccurate or out of date. Price tiers ("$", "$$", "$$$") and the Canada/US availability toggle are indicative only and are not a quote or a guarantee that an item ships to you. Any affiliate link, "View" button or partner listing is not an endorsement, recommendation or guarantee, and we make no representation that a third-party product is safe or appropriate for your animal. Any claim relating to a product must be made against the partner company or manufacturer. The same applies to any retailer, breeder, wholesaler, courier, veterinarian or other business we mention, link to or work with.

Advertising on our site

We may display advertising supplied by third-party advertising networks, including Google AdSense, on Resource Centre articles. Advertisements are selected by the network, not by us, and may be personalised as described in our Privacy Policy. The appearance of an advertisement is not an endorsement by the A Lot'l Group of the advertiser, its products or its claims. Your dealings with any advertiser, including payment, delivery and any representations or warranties, are solely between you and that advertiser, and the Covered Parties are not responsible for any loss or damage arising from them. We do not display advertising on the homepage, the Marketplace, the community pages, our interactive tools, legal pages or content written for children.

Third-party websites and embedded content

The Services contain links to, and may embed content from, third-party websites and platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Amazon and Google, and to the websites of our affiliated companies, each of which has its own terms and privacy policy. We do not control third-party services and the Covered Parties are not responsible for their content, availability, accuracy, security, cookies or privacy practices. Reviews, ratings and community posts shown on the Services are supplied by the individuals who wrote them and reflect their opinions, not ours.

Service availability and changes

We may change, suspend, restrict or discontinue any part of the Services, including features, content, tools, the Marketplace and links to the community, at any time and without liability to you. The Services may be unavailable from time to time for maintenance, upgrades, outages or reasons beyond our control. We do not guarantee that the Services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that any content or saved checklist progress will be preserved. You are responsible for keeping your own copies of anything you need.

Events beyond our control

The Covered Parties are not liable for any delay or failure to perform caused by events beyond their reasonable control, including natural disasters, fire, flood, epidemics, government orders, labour disputes, power or internet outages, cyber-attacks, or hosting, network or service-provider failures.

Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICES, ALL CONTENT, THE TOOLS AND EVERY LINK ARE PROVIDED "AS IS", "WITH ALL FAULTS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE COVERED PARTIES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, CONDITIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, MERCHANTABLE QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, DURABILITY, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, QUIET ENJOYMENT AND THOSE ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. We do not warrant that content is accurate, complete or current; that the Services will meet your needs or operate without interruption or error; that any product, tool or piece of advice will produce any result; or that the Services are free of viruses or harmful components. Any warranty for a third-party product is given by its manufacturer or seller, not by us. No advice or information, oral or written, obtained from any Covered Party creates any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms.

Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL THE COVERED PARTIES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF ANIMALS, LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, BUSINESS, GOODWILL, DATA OR USE, PROPERTY DAMAGE (INCLUDING WATER OR ELECTRICAL DAMAGE), PERSONAL INJURY, ILLNESS, VETERINARY OR MEDICAL COSTS, OR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS, THE SERVICES, ANY CONTENT, ANY TOOL, THE COMMUNITY, ANY MEMBER, ANY PARTNER COMPANY OR ADVERTISER, OR ANY PRODUCT OR ANIMAL, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, STATUTE OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT A COVERED PARTY WAS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF ALL COVERED PARTIES TOGETHER, FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES, WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID A MEMBER OF THE A LOT'L GROUP FOR THE SPECIFIC PRODUCT OR SERVICE GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE AND (B) ONE HUNDRED CANADIAN DOLLARS ($100 CAD). These limitations are fundamental elements of the bargain between you and us, apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose, and apply to every Covered Party. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain warranties or damages; in those jurisdictions the Covered Parties' liability is limited to the greatest extent the law permits, and nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law.

Release

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you release and forever discharge the Covered Parties from any and all claims, demands, losses, damages, rights and actions of any kind, known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, that arise out of or relate to: your keeping of any animal or aquarium; any dispute or interaction with another member of the community, a partner company, an advertiser or any other third party; any content, advice or information obtained through the Services; and any use of the Services. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code section 1542, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party."

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Covered Parties from and against any and all claims, demands, suits, proceedings, losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, settlements, fines, penalties, costs and expenses, including reasonable legal fees and costs, arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the Services or any product or service obtained through them; (b) any animal you obtain from a member, a partner company or through the Services, including its escape, illness, death or transmission of disease, and any injury, illness or damage it causes; (c) your User Content or conduct, including any claim that your User Content infringes or violates the rights of any person; (d) your breach of these Terms or of any representation or warranty in them, including any misrepresentation of your age, identity, location or the legality of keeping an animal; (e) your violation of any law, regulation or permit requirement, including laws on owning, selling, importing or transporting animals; (f) a child's use of the Services under your supervision; and (g) your dealings with any member, partner company or advertiser. We may assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification, at your expense, and you agree to cooperate with us. You may not settle any claim involving a Covered Party without our written consent.

Dispute resolution

Talk to us first. If you have a dispute with us, email [email protected] with your name, the page or matter concerned and a description of the problem and what you want. We will do the same if we have a dispute with you. Both sides agree to try in good faith to resolve the dispute informally for at least thirty (30) days before starting any formal proceeding.

Arbitration. To the extent permitted by the law that applies to you, any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services that is not resolved informally will be finally resolved by binding arbitration before a single neutral arbitrator in Ontario, Canada, administered under the rules of a recognised Canadian arbitration institution agreed by the parties (or, failing agreement, the ADR Institute of Canada), conducted in English, with the arbitrator's award final and binding and enforceable in any court of competent jurisdiction. Either party may instead bring an individual claim in a small-claims court with jurisdiction. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking injunctive or other equitable relief in court for infringement or misuse of intellectual property or unauthorised access to the Services.

No class actions. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you and we agree that disputes are personal to you and us and will be resolved only on an individual basis, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding.

Consumers. If you are a consumer in a jurisdiction (including Ontario and Quebec) whose law gives you the right to bring a claim in court or to join a class proceeding despite an arbitration agreement, nothing in this section takes that right away. Time limit. To the extent the law allows, any claim must be started within one (1) year after it arises or it is permanently barred.

Termination and suspension

We may suspend or block your access to all or part of the Services, remove content and refuse future submissions at any time, with or without notice, if we believe you have breached these Terms, acted abusively toward our team or the community, posed a risk to any animal or person, or for any other reason at our discretion. Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including definitions, intellectual property, your content licence, assumption of risk, disclaimers, limitation of liability, release, indemnification, dispute resolution and governing law, continue to apply.

Changes to these Terms

We may modify or replace these Terms at any time. The "last updated" date at the top of this page shows when they last changed, and for material changes we will also post a notice on the Services or email newsletter subscribers before the change takes effect. It is your responsibility to review these Terms periodically. Your continued use of the Services after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms; if you do not agree, stop using the Services.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Services, are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Ontario, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Subject to the Dispute resolution section, you and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Ontario, Canada, and waive any objection to venue there, and both parties waive trial by jury to the extent permitted by law. If mandatory consumer-protection law in your province, state or country gives you additional rights or a different forum that cannot be waived, those rules apply to that extent only.

General terms

Void where prohibited. Not all products, services or content are available to all persons or in all locations, and any offer made through a link is void where prohibited. Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Affiliate Disclosure and any page-specific terms we publish are the entire agreement between you and us about the Services and supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals. Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted and the remaining provisions remain in full force. No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it or of any other provision. Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms; we may assign them to any member of the A Lot'l Group or to a successor of our business without notice. No agency. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, franchise or agency relationship between you and any Covered Party. Third-party beneficiaries. Except for the Covered Parties, who may enforce these Terms, no third party has any rights under them. Language. These Terms are drafted in English; if they are translated, the English version governs to the extent the law allows, and you confirm that you have asked that this agreement and related documents be drafted in English. Headings and interpretation. Headings are for convenience only; "including" means "including without limitation".

Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to [email protected]. Axolotl City is an online publication headquartered in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada, and a member of the A Lot'l Group.

Who we are and how to reach us

Axolotl City is an online publication about axolotl care, headquartered in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada, and a member of the A Lot'l Group. We are the organisation responsible for the personal information collected through the Services. The A Lot'l Group has designated a privacy officer who is accountable for compliance with this policy and with privacy law across the group.

Questions, access requests, corrections, complaints or withdrawal of consent can be sent to our privacy officer at [email protected]. We aim to respond within 30 days.

Affiliated companies

"Affiliated companies" means A Lot'l Axolotls (alotlaxolotls.ca) and every parent, subsidiary, sister brand, joint venture or other business owned or controlled by, or under common ownership or control with, Axolotl City, now or in the future. Together with Axolotl City they form the A Lot'l Group. Some Services are shared across the group: The Lot'l Pond community serves members of both Axolotl City and A Lot'l Axolotls, our mailing list may carry news from any member of the group, and customer support, technology and administration may be provided by any member of the group on behalf of the others.

Personal information collected by one member of the A Lot'l Group may be shared with and used by the other members for the purposes described in this policy, under the same protections, and each member of the group is bound by this policy. Where an affiliated company publishes its own privacy policy for its own website, that policy applies to information collected there; this policy applies to information collected through the Services described above and to information shared within the group. Our privacy officer is the single point of contact for privacy requests about any member of the group.

Information we collect

Information you give us. Axolotl City has no user accounts, no shop and no checkout. When you join the newsletter we collect your first name, last name and email address. When you email us or send us photos, corrections or suggestions, we keep what you send, including your email address and the contents of your message, and any name you ask us to credit.

Information collected automatically. When you visit the site, our hosting provider (Cloudflare) logs your IP address, approximate location derived from it, browser and device type, the pages you view, referring links, and the date and time of your visit, for security, abuse prevention and aggregate statistics. Cookies and similar technologies are described below.

On-device preferences. A few features remember your choices on your own device only — which items you have ticked on a checklist, whether you chose the Canada or US view of the Marketplace, and your consent choices. This is stored in your browser's local storage, never leaves your device, and is not visible to us.

Community information. If you join The Lot'l Pond, your account and everything you post there are collected and held by A Lot'l Axolotls under this same policy; see "The Lot'l Pond community" below.

How we use your information

We use personal information to: send the newsletter you asked for; reply to your messages; credit you where you have asked to be credited for content you sent; keep the Services safe (fraud prevention, abuse prevention, enforcing our Terms of Service); understand how the site is used so we can improve it; display advertising on Resource Centre articles as described below; and meet our legal obligations.

We do not sell personal information, we do not use the personal information of children for advertising or profiling, and we do not make decisions about you using automated processing alone that would have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

Consent and legal bases

Under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and provincial privacy laws, we collect, use and disclose personal information with your knowledge and consent, except where the law permits or requires otherwise. Your consent may be express (for example filling in the newsletter form) or implied by your actions (for example emailing us a question). You can withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice, by contacting us or using an unsubscribe link.

Where the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation applies, our legal bases are: your consent (newsletter, advertising and analytics cookies); our legitimate interests in running, securing and improving the Services and replying to you; and compliance with legal obligations.

Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small text files stored on your device. Axolotl City itself sets no tracking cookies.

Strictly necessary. Cloudflare may set a small number of cookies for security (for example, to distinguish humans from bots). Your consent choices and on-device preferences are held in local storage as described above.

Analytics and performance. We use Google Analytics 4 (Google LLC / Google Ireland Limited) to understand how the site is used: pages visited, approximate region (Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses), device and browser type, and how you arrived. It sets first-party cookies (_ga, _ga_*, up to 2 years) and processes the data on Google's servers, which may be outside Canada. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland these cookies are off until you consent; elsewhere they run by default and you can opt out at any time with Google's browser add-on or by blocking cookies for this site. We do not use Google Signals or advertising features in Analytics, and we do not share Analytics data with advertisers. Google's own practices are described in its privacy policy.

Advertising cookies are set by Google and its partners only when advertising is shown, as described in the next section, and only after you have consented where consent is required by law.

Where required by law we show a consent banner before non-essential cookies are set, and you can change your choices at any time through the privacy and cookie settings link in the footer or the banner itself. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings; the site will still work.

Advertising (Google AdSense)

We may use Google AdSense to display a small number of clearly labelled advertisements on Resource Centre articles and guide listings, and at the foot of our About page. Advertising helps keep our care guides free. Ads are never shown on the homepage, the Marketplace, the community pages, legal pages or articles written for children, and never inside our interactive tools.

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our site and/or other sites on the Internet. Where you have not consented to personalised advertising, or where the law does not permit it, Google serves non-personalised ads, which rely on contextual information and may still use cookies for frequency capping, aggregated reporting and fraud prevention.

You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info/choices (Digital Advertising Alliance), youradchoices.ca (Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada) and, in Europe, youronlinechoices.eu. Information on how Google uses data when you use our site is available at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. Third-party ad networks and vendors that may serve ads on the site are listed by Google at support.google.com/adsense/answer/9012903.

Our publisher relationship with Google is declared in our ads.txt file. We do not pass Google your name, email address or other information that identifies you.

Affiliate links

Some links on this site are affiliate links. Axolotl City is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the Amazon.ca Associates Program, affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. When you click an affiliate link, the partner (for example Amazon) may set its own cookies to attribute the referral; those cookies are governed by the partner's privacy policy, and the partner does not share your personal information or purchase details with us. Links to A Lot'l Axolotls are links to a member of our own group; see our Affiliate Disclosure.

Who we share information with

We share personal information within the A Lot'l Group as described under "Affiliated companies", and otherwise only with service providers that help us run the Services, and only what they need. They are contractually required to protect it and to use it only for the services they provide to us. They currently include: our web host (Cloudflare, Inc.); our email delivery provider, which stores the newsletter list and sends newsletters (we will name the provider here when the newsletter goes live); and Google, for advertising as described above.

Public content from The Lot'l Pond (topic titles, excerpts, board names, members' display names and public profile pictures, and reply counts) is published by A Lot'l Axolotls through a feed that appears on axolotlcity.com. Private messages, email addresses and account details are never included.

We may also disclose information when the law requires it, to protect our rights, readers or the public, to investigate fraud or abuse, or as part of a business transfer, in which case this policy would continue to apply.

The Lot'l Pond community

The Lot'l Pond is hosted by A Lot'l Axolotls. Your community account, profile, posts, photos and messages are collected and held by A Lot'l Axolotls under this same group policy and the A Lot'l Axolotls Terms of Service. Anything you post publicly there is visible to other visitors, may appear in the community feed on axolotlcity.com, and may be indexed by search engines. Axolotl City itself stores no community data; requests about your community account should go to our privacy officer, who handles requests for every member of the group.

Children

The Services are intended for adults and are not directed at children under thirteen (13). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under 16 where that is the applicable age), and we will delete such information if we learn of it. Articles written to help parents and teachers explain axolotls to children do not ask for any information about a child, and we do not display advertising, use advertising or analytics cookies, or collect behavioural data on those pages. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will remove it. The kids' learning hub operated by A Lot'l Axolotls has its own safeguards, described in the A Lot'l Axolotls Privacy Policy.

Marketing emails

We send newsletters, updates and care tips only to people who have joined our mailing list, in accordance with Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and other applicable law. Every email identifies us and how to reach us and includes an unsubscribe link that takes effect promptly. Because the mailing list is shared across the A Lot'l Group, it may carry news from any member of the group; unsubscribing removes you from all of it.

Where your information is stored

Our website is served by Cloudflare from data centres around the world, our email provider operates in the United States, and our business operates from Canada, so your information may be stored and processed in Canada, the United States and other countries where our providers operate. While it is outside Canada, information may be accessible to the authorities of that country under its laws. We use contractual and technical safeguards to protect information wherever it is processed.

How long we keep information

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described here and to meet legal obligations. Newsletter details are kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them, after which they are removed from the active list within 30 days (a suppression record of your email may be kept so we do not accidentally re-add you). Correspondence and submitted content are kept for up to three years so we can follow up, unless needed longer to resolve a dispute or meet a legal requirement. Server logs are retained by Cloudflare for its standard period and then discarded. Backups are retained for a limited period before being overwritten.

Security

We protect personal information with safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), access controls, and staff access limited to what is needed; the site itself is static, with no database of visitor accounts to breach. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure; if a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected people and the appropriate regulators as the law requires.

Your rights and choices

You can ask to access the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a copy of it in a portable format, or to withdraw your consent. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter using the link in any email, clear on-device preferences by clearing your browser data, manage your community profile from The Lot'l Pond, and manage advertising cookies through the consent tools and the opt-out links in the Advertising section. To exercise any other right, email our privacy officer. We may need to verify your identity first. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

Regional notices

Canada. If you are not satisfied with our response to a privacy concern, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca) or your provincial commissioner.

Quebec. In accordance with the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25), non-essential cookies and tracking technologies are turned off by default for visitors from Quebec until you enable them, our privacy officer is the person in charge of the protection of personal information, and you may request that we stop disseminating your personal information or de-index it in the circumstances the Act provides.

United States. Residents of California and other states with consumer privacy laws have the right to know what personal information we collect, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information and of targeted advertising. We do not sell personal information. Advertising cookies used for personalised ads may count as "sharing" under California law; you can opt out through the consent banner or the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link when it is shown, through the opt-out links in the Advertising section, or by contacting us. Where an ad request is made without consent for personalised ads, Google's restricted data processing applies. We honour the Global Privacy Control browser signal as an opt-out request where the law requires it. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.

European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland. You have the rights described above, plus the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests, to restrict processing, and to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. Advertising and analytics cookies are set only after you give consent through the consent banner, which uses the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework, and you can withdraw consent through the same banner at any time.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Services and the law change. The date at the top shows when it was last revised, and material changes will be announced on the site or by email to newsletter subscribers before they take effect. Continued use of the Services after a change means you accept the revised policy.