How Paws on Record decides what to publish.
We aggregate animal-cruelty conviction records to help shelters, rescues, adopters, and journalists make safer decisions. Our editorial standards keep this useful and trustworthy — and accountable when we get it wrong.
We publish only court-record-backed cruelty cases, source every entry, flag pending trials, and remove anything we got wrong.
Convicted, charged, or indicted only
We do not publish unsubstantiated allegations, anonymous tips, social-media accusations, or pre-arrest reports. Every record represents a person who has been formally charged, indicted, convicted, or pleaded guilty in a court of law, or who appears on an official government animal-abuse registry.
Authoritative sources, every time
Every record links to at least one verifying source — a state or county animal-abuse registry (TN TBI, Henrico County VA, Suffolk County NY), a federal indictment or DOJ press release, an appellate decision, a state Attorney General release, or a published news account from a credentialed outlet. Records sourced from primary government documents carry a green VERIFIED badge.
Pending cases are clearly labeled
Cases that are charged or indicted but not yet adjudicated are explicitly flagged with an amber "ON TRIAL — PENDING" badge and the year is labeled "Indicted" rather than "Convicted." Users are warned not to treat these as proven crimes.
Corrections are a first-class citizen
Every detail page has a Request Correction / Takedown button. Genuine claims (overturned, vacated, expunged, sealed, or mis-identified subject) are reviewed within 5 business days and corrected or removed with a public note. We err on the side of removing rather than disputing close calls.
We are not a background-check service
Paws on Record is a public-interest research tool. We are not a Consumer Reporting Agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Service may not be used for employment, housing, lending, insurance, or other FCRA-covered decisions. We make this disclaimer prominent on every page.
Official statement
Journalists, shelter directors, and partners are welcome to quote the following statement directly. Attribute to Nova Naval, Founder.
“Paws on Record is a public-interest transparency project operated by Refuel LLC. We aggregate convicted animal-abuser records from official state, federal, and court sources to help shelters and adopters make safer placement decisions. Our editorial standards are public at pawsonrecord.com/editorial. I’d be happy to discuss the registry, our methodology, and the broader animal-cruelty data gap.”