Stan Rawlinson, the man who refers to himself as ‘Doglistener’ amongst several other (not always male) identities, has been caught up in yet another row about his self created ‘credentials’.

Rawlinson, well known to K9 Magazine readers for previous serious indiscretions, was, as recently as last week, claiming to be a ’spokesperson’ for a number of high profile organisations, including the BBC and Disney. A claim which is emphatically a lie. A claim which he has now had to retract.

This is not the first time Rawlinson has attempted to publicly mislead people about his identity and credentials. In December of 2006 Geoff Paulsen of The Walt Disney Company contacted us to demand the removal of any implied link between the “Disney” name and “specifically Stanley Rawlinson” after the self-titled ‘Doglistener’ claimed to have been a ‘behavioural spokesperson’ for the famous US organisation.

Rawlinson was made aware of Disney’s position but, it would appear, he’s been back up to his old tricks only this time he’s dragged the good names of the BBC, ITV and Sky News in to his fantasy world.  As the screen capture below shows, the ‘Doglistener’ was again misrepresenting the nature of his relationship with those organisations in order to boost his credentials on his website claiming himself to be a ’spokesman’ for the aforementioned corporations, in reality – he’s not, nor ever has been anything of the sort.

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The BBC have – after legal consultation – written to Rawlinson, after initially ‘finding no record of him’ and he has now removed the misleading statement from his website.

However, there remains a larger problem and one that we will be tackling in the next edition of K9 Magazine; We must now ask: is time that we started to PROPERLY regulate the pet industry in order to protect pet owners from falling victim to unscrupulous, misleading pet service providers?

Whether it’s dog trainers misleading potential clients about their credentials or pet health care professionals who don’t declare their commercial interests, pet owners place a high degree of trust in the hands of those people who set themselves up to provide services on their behalf.

Is it time that people in these professions were brought up to a minimum charter standard? Should we have a ‘kitemark’ style system to help pet owners understand whether they are handing their money over to a genuine, professional, skilled practitioner or a money grabbing charlatan?

As more and more pet owners discover that dog trainers are, effectively, operating in cowboy country (create a business card, build a website, take out a Yellow pages ad, hey presto – you’re a ‘dog trainer’) and as health/therapy practitioners are steadily infiltrated by out and out crooks, surely it’s time that British pet owners were given peace of mind? They need and deserve to understand exactly who they are employing. They need and deserve to understand that not all is always as it seems when it comes to certain service providers. They deserve to be informed but more, they deserve to be protected.

Learn more in the next edition of K9 Magazine as we expose the shady goings on and dodgy dealings on the darkside of the pet services sector.

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