How to read a health certificate — and how to tell a forged one

A PDF is not evidence. It is a picture of evidence, and pictures are easy to make. Forged health certificates circulate widely, they carry plausible reference formats, and they are often better designed than the real thing — because the person making them knows the document's only job is to survive a glance.

The laboratory, however, cannot be forged. Every check worth doing goes around the breeder and straight to the source, and none of them requires expertise.

First, ask which laboratory ran the test. Not "we test everything" — the name. A breeder who genuinely tests cannot fail this question, and hesitation is itself the answer. Second, ask for the certificate reference number and confirm it yourself, through the laboratory's own results portal or by contacting them. Do not accept a screenshot of a portal; a screenshot is another picture.

Third, check that the animal named on the certificate is actually the parent of your animal. A valid certificate for a different cat or dog from the same programme is the most common sleight of hand there is, and it passes every check except this one. The registered name and microchip number on the certificate must match the sire or dam on the pedigree you were shown.

Fourth, check the date and understand what it does and does not cover. A DNA result is valid for life. A heart or hip screening is a snapshot of one animal on one day: an echocardiogram from four years ago describes a cat that no longer exists. Ask when the most recent screening was, and be suspicious of a breeding programme that cannot answer.

If a breeder becomes irritated by any of this — calls you difficult, says other buyers never ask, implies you are insulting them — you have learned what you needed to learn, and you learned it before paying. Breeders who do test are, in our experience, delighted to be asked.