Disclosure

We own one of the suppliers we rank

Saying so plainly is the only version of this that's worth anything.

Last updated 16 September 2026

The relationship

Pawperator is founded and owned by Leon "Jo" Holness. He is also the founder and owner of K9 Gourmet Ltd, trading as K9 Gourmet BB — a raw pet food supplier that has a listing on this platform and receives a Pawperator Raw Score like every other supplier.

That's a conflict of interest. It doesn't stop being one because we disclose it. What disclosure does is let you weigh our ranking of K9 Gourmet BB with the information you need to judge it.

Where you'll see this

Every K9 Gourmet BB listing on Pawperator carries an Owned by Pawperator badge, displayed at the same prominence as its Raw Score, on both the listing card and the supplier profile. If you ever see a K9 Gourmet BB listing without it, that's a bug — please tell us.

What we do about it

K9 Gourmet BB is scored by the same published criteria as everyone else. There is no adjustment, bonus, or manual override applied to its score. The criteria are public — see How the Raw Score works.
Its negative reviews are treated identically. We do not remove, down-rank, delay, or filter criticism of K9 Gourmet BB. Our moderation rules apply to every listing without exception.
Nobody connected to K9 Gourmet BB reviews it anonymously. Any review or testimonial from Jo, from anyone who works for K9 Gourmet, or from a family member of either, is labelled as coming from someone connected to the business, directly on the review.
K9 Gourmet BB gets no free placement. If it appears in a featured or sponsored slot, that slot is labelled as advertising exactly as it would be for any other supplier.
No access to competitors' private data. Information suppliers give us to manage their listings is not shared with K9 Gourmet BB.

Why we didn't just keep them separate

We could have left K9 Gourmet BB off the platform entirely and avoided this page. We didn't, for a straightforward reason: a directory that excludes suppliers is less useful to the people using it, and a supplier that's good enough to recommend is good enough to be judged in public by the same standard as everyone else.

If the Raw Score is only credible when it's applied to other people's businesses, it isn't credible. Applying it to our own — visibly, with the result published whatever it is — is the point.

Hold us to it

If you think K9 Gourmet BB has been scored, placed, or moderated differently from any other supplier, tell us and we'll publish what we find. Write to hello.pawperator@gmail.com with "Ownership" in the subject line.