Document verification: what our badges actually mean

Badges on the internet have a bad habit of meaning less than they appear to. Ours come in three levels, and the difference between them matters more than the presence of any of them.

Unverified means the listing was added by the community and nobody has confirmed the breeder's identity or seen any health documentation. It is worth saying clearly that this is not an accusation. It is an absence, and an absence of complaints is not evidence of good practice — a breeder with no record is an unknown, not a safe bet.

Identity verified means a person proved who they are and proved their connection to the business. That is genuinely useful: it means there is somebody accountable behind the page, and it means replies to reviews come from the actual breeder. It says nothing whatsoever about the animals, the testing, or the paperwork.

Documents verified is the strongest badge we issue. It means a moderator has read health certificates, exam results and pedigrees for the current breeding animals — not a summary, not a website claim, the documents. Where a reference could be checked against a laboratory, it was.

And here is what none of the three do. No badge on this site guarantees the health of any individual animal. No badge is an endorsement. No badge means you can skip verifying the paperwork yourself before you pay, and if any platform ever tells you its badge means you can stop checking, distrust the platform rather than the breeder.

Verification also expires in practice even when it does not expire formally. A cardiac screening is a snapshot; a badge earned on last season's documents says nothing about a mating this season. Ask for current paperwork regardless of what the badge says.