science

List of animals awarded human credentials

List of animals awarded human credentials is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of animals awarded human credentials rather than just read about it. In short: This list of animals awarded human credentials includes nonhuman animals who have been submitted as applicants to suspected diploma mills, and have been awarded a diploma. On occasion, they have been admitted and granted a degree, as reported in reliable sources.

Key takeaways

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Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
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Reproduce the core statement of List of animals awarded human credentials from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This list of animals awarded human credentials includes nonhuman animals who have been submitted as applicants to suspected diploma mills, and have been awarded a diploma. On occasion, they have been admitted and granted a degree, as reported in reliable sources. Animals are often used as a device to clearly demonstrate the lax standards or fraudulent activities of the awarding institutions. In at least one case, a cat's degree helped lead to a successful fraud prosecution against the institution that had issued it. On occasion, accredited institutions award mock degrees to animals for humorous purposes, e.g. UNSW awarded a "dogtorate" (not doctorate) to a dog; such cases are not included below.

Cats

Colby Nolan (MBA) Colby Nolan was a house cat who was awarded an MBA in 2004 by Trinity Southern University, a Dallas-based diploma mill, sparking a fraud lawsuit by the Pennsylvania attorney general's office. Colby Nolan lived with a deputy attorney general. In looking to expose Trinity Southern University for fraud, undercover agents had the then-six-year-old feline obtain a bachelor's degree in business administration for $299. On the animal's application, the agents claimed that the cat had previously taken courses at a community college, worked at a fast-food restaurant, babysat, and maintained a newspaper route. In response, the institution informed Colby that, due to the job experience listed on his application, he was eligible for an executive MBA which he could obtain for an additional $100. The transcript submitted by the agents claimed that Colby had a GPA of 3.5. Upon learning that the cat received the degree, Pennsylvania attorney general Jerry Pappert filed a lawsuit against Trinity Southern University. In the lawsuit, Pappert directed the diploma mill, which had used email spam to sell degrees, to provide restitution to anyone who had ordered a degree from them. In December 2004, the Texas attorney general obtained a temporary restraining order under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act against Trinity Southern and its owners, Craig B. and Alton S. Poe. The court also ordered the school's assets frozen. In March 2005, the Poes were assessed penalties of over $100,000 by the court and were ordered not to market or promote fraudulent, substandard degree programs or to represent their university as being accredited or affiliated with legitimate universities. It was reported that the Poes were also associated with Wesleyan International University and Prixo Southern University. Trinity Southern University's website has been offline since 2005.

George (registration for practice as a hypnotherapist) In 2009, George, a cat owned by Chris Jackson (presenter of the BBC show Inside Out North East & Cumbria), was registered as a hypnotherapist after his owner created a fake certificate from a non-existing institution and used it to register with three professional organizations: the British Board of Neuro Linguistic Programming, the United Fellowship of Hypnotherapists, and the Professional Hypnotherapy Practitioner Association.

Henrietta (Hettie, certified member of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants) In 2007, the cat Henrietta, despite having been dead for around a year, was successfully registered as a certified member of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants by her owner Ben Goldacre, doctor and author of the Bad Science column in the Guardian newspaper and subsequent book. Goldacre registered Henrietta with AANC to showcase the complete lack of any verification for membership, beyond payment of $60, after TV nutritionist Gillian McKeith promoted her AANC membership among other unverified qualifications.

Kitty O'Malley (high school diploma) In 1973, the Lakeland, Florida newspaper The Ledger obtained a high school diploma from "Washington High Academy" for Kitty O'Malley, a cat also known as Spanky. While the diploma was deemed insufficient to gain Kitty admission to local colleges, the state attorney general's office planned to investigate the institution.

Oliver Greenhalgh (fellowship of estate valuation professional society) On December 10, 1967, The Times reported that Oliver Greenhalgh had been accepted as a fellow of the English Association of Estate Agents and Valuers, after a payment of eleven guineas (his two references were not verified). Oliver was a cat belonging to Michael Greenhalgh, a cameraman with Television Wales and the West, who was pursuing an investigation of bogus professional associations.

Oreo Collins (high school diploma) Oreo C. Collins (born around 2007) is a tuxedo cat who gained notoriety when she received a diploma from Jefferson High School Online in 2009, although her age was misrepresented in order to qualify. The sting was an investigative operation by the Better Business Bureau of Central Georgia headed by Kelvin Collins, Oreo's owner.

Zoe D. Katze (psychotherapist and hypnotherapy certifications) Zoe D. Katze ("Zoe the Cat" in German) was a house cat owned by psychologist Steve K. D. Eichel. Around 2001, Eichel obtained a psychotherapy certification for his cat from the American Psychotherapy Association and several hypnotherapy credentials from other organizations. The certification of Zoe has been cited in several books and articles on credentialing scams, and has appeared in psychology and forensic curricula. Eichel also served as the consultant to the BBC investigation that led to the certification of George the cat by several UK hypnosis associations.

Dogs

Chester Ludlow (MBA) In 2009, Chester Ludlow, a pug from Vermont, was awarded an MBA by Rochville University. His owner submitted an application and US$499 and received a "diploma, two sets of transcripts, a certificate of distinction in finance, and a certificate of membership in the student council".

Lulu (college diploma) In 2010, Mark Howard, a member of the legal team for the claimants (BSkyB) in BSkyB Ltd & Anor v HP Enterprise Services UK Ltd & Anor [2010] obtained a degree for his dog Lulu from Concordia College in the US Virgin Islands. Lulu "graduated" with higher marks than the defendant's key witness, who, the judge found, had lied that he had attended classes for his Concordia MBA. In the legal community, the story of the witness' MBA is described as "infamous", and a supervisory management cautionary tale.

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of animals awarded human credentials

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of animals awarded human credentials claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of animals awarded human credentials before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of animals awarded human credentials ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of animals awarded human credentials

In research: List of animals awarded human credentials appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of animals awarded human credentials in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of animals awarded human credentials is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Education-related lists, Education scandals, Lists of individual animals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of animals awarded human credentials outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is List of animals awarded human credentials in simple terms?

Why does List of animals awarded human credentials matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of animals awarded human credentials?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

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