What “verified” means

A profile has one of three levels, and the level appears beside the breeder's name.

• Unverified. Added by the community or transcribed from a public directory. Nobody has confirmed this breeder's identity or seen any health documentation. The absence of complaints is not evidence of good practice.
• Identity verified. The person who runs this portal proved their identity and their connection to the business. No health document has been verified.
• Documents verified. A moderator saw health certificates, test results and pedigrees for the current breeding animals. This does not guarantee the health of any particular animal and is not an endorsement.

Claiming a portal does not award the seal by itself. They are two separate routes: a moderator reads the documents a breeder sends and decides by what is written in them, and we promise no date for either. The seal is earned, not bought: nothing a breeder pays changes their profile's level.

Profiles transcribed from a club's public directory start unverified, however official the source looks. Appearing on a club's list shows the breeder is on it, and nothing about the animals.

Inside a profile, each credential, test or award has a level of its own, independent of the profile's seal.

• Declared by the breeder. Their own words, and no moderator saw the document.
• Document seen. A moderator read the certificate behind the item.
• Membership confirmed. The club's or federation's listing publishes the breeder as a member. It confirms membership and says nothing about the animals.

A registration number published by a club appears as the club published it, not as confirmed: a number on a contact list is the club repeating what a member told it, not the club certifying it.

Dogs. The FCI requires every member and contract partner to keep a studbook for the breeds it recognises, and only dogs bred according to its rules and entered in that studbook can have a pedigree bearing the FCI logo (Internal Rules, art. 17.1). Those pedigrees must be accepted by all members as “documents proving that the pups are born of pedigree parents from the same breed” (art. 17.13).

That is proof of descent and breed. On health, the FCI's rules say only functionally healthy pedigree dogs, typical of their breed, should be used for breeding, and that it is up to each breeder to determine whether the breeding animals are mentally and physically suitable (art. 4.3). The assessment is left to the breeder.

Cats. FIFe works in a similar way: the pedigree book (LO) is the complete register of cats, each member organisation issues pedigrees only to its own members, and a pedigree must carry the FIFe logo and the member's signature (Breeding & Registration Rules, 4.1 and 4.5).

The obligatory tests are only the ones a breed's rule imposes. In Maine Coons, for example, the PAX3 gene test is obligatory for blue-eyed or odd-eyed cats (6.15). A heart examination, by ECG or ultrasound, for heart disease including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), is in Annex II as recommended before breeding, not as obligatory. Each FIFe member must develop test programmes for the relevant genetic diseases (3.5.1), so a breeder's national club may require more: check that club's own rules.

Dogs. The affix (kennel name) is registered in the FCI's international register through the national club (art. 18.1). A dog may only carry its breeder's affix, and the breeder is the owner of the bitch at the time of birth (18.4 a). The affix is granted to one person, is valid for life unless given up in writing and cannot be changed once registered (18.4 b and e). A breeder may have only one per breed (18.4 d).

Cats. The cattery name is the private and personal property of the breeder, registered through the national FIFe member, and each member may have only one (5.2.2 and 5.2.3). No cat may carry a cattery name other than its breeder's, and using a name that is not registered is not allowed (4.1 and 5.2.4).

An affix lets you follow a line back to whoever registered it. It says nothing about the animals' health or about how the breeder treats the people who buy from them.

• It is not an endorsement or a guarantee of any animal's health.
• It holds on the date the moderator saw the document: a test has a validity and things change.
• It does not replace asking. Ask the breeder, in writing, for the parents' test results, and check the number with the body that issued them.
• The absence of complaints is not evidence of good practice, and a seal does not replace it.

The FIFe and FCI rules were read in the documents the organisations themselves publish, and each statement above gives its section or article. They change: the version in force is the one they publish.

• FIFe, Breeding & Registration RulesEdition of 01.07.2026: sections 3.5.1, 4.1, 4.5, 5.2 and 6.15, and Annex II (health examinations, edition of 30.09.2025).
• FCI, Internal RulesArticles 4.3, 17 and 18.

Read on 2 November 2026.