Trust · PetScored desk
How PetScored stays honest.
One page, four answers. How we make money. What we refuse to do. How the rubric is held in public. How to argue with us when we get something wrong.
01 · The business model
Reader-supported. No manufacturer money.
PetScored is funded by readers and, on retail-purchase actions for foods that have already been scored, by affiliate links. We do not accept payment from manufacturers. We do not run sponsored rankings, paid placements, or free-product review programs. We do not let an editor override a sub-score because a brand asked nicely or argued well.
Affiliate revenue does not affect the rubric, a sub-score, the rule events behind a score, or the order of any best-for list. If we ever change this, we will publish the change on this page first.
02 · What we refuse to score
Absence is the honest answer.
The fastest way to inflate a dog food rating site is to score every bag, fill the gaps with assumptions, and let the traffic come. PetScored takes the slower path. We refuse to score when the evidence is missing, contested, or partial in a way we cannot resolve. 2 foods are currently on hold for that reason.
03 · The rubric is held in public
Same inputs, same score, every time.
Scoring is deterministic. Every score is reconstructible from the public methodology and the data on its product page. Sub-scores show their rule events. Rule events show their evidence tier. Source confidence is labelled on every fact. We publish the rubric, we publish the changelog, and when the rubric changes we recompute the affected scorecards so the history is honest.
04 · How to argue with a score
Send us a worse score, we’ll publish it.
If you think a score is wrong, the cheapest way to convince us is to point to the rule event that should have fired and did not, or to the source confidence label that we treated as stronger than it should be. Vague disagreement is not an argument. Sources, rules, and corrections are.
When we change a score, we add a note to the affected scorecard and the next methodology changelog. When we change the rubric, we publish the diff. When we get a refusal wrong, we say so.
05 · What this page is not
We are not your vet.
PetScored is an editorial publication and a public scoring system. We are not a veterinary service. We do not diagnose, treat, or prevent disease. We do not recommend foods for specific medical conditions. We do not replace a clinical conversation with your veterinarian. Every page that touches medical territory says so.