13 Animals Who Earned Degrees While You Still Have Not

Thanks to artist Kate Beaton and Wikipedia , here's a list of animals who have earned degrees and diplomas through mostly nefarious ways. Don't show this to your family.

Colby Nolan

Above: an artist's rendition of Colby.

"Pennsylvania Attorney General Jerry Pappert isn't amused, since Colby is a pet cat and a Texas-based online college allegedly gave the feline a degree for $399.

'I filed this lawsuit to stop a massive illegal spam campaign that not only defrauded consumers and employers, but damaged the reputations of numerous Pennsylvania businesses across 24 counties and a government office,' Pappert said Monday.
Pappert's office used the pet cat to investigate an alleged scheme designed to promote and sell bogus online academic degrees."

Source: coedmagazine.files.wordpress.com / via: web.archive.org

George

"The regulation of hypnotherapists in the UK is so lax that even a cat can become accredited, the BBC has found.
Chris Jackson, presenter of Inside Out in the North East and Cumbria, registered pet George with three industry bodies.
Each one accepted a certificate from the non-existent Society of Certified Advanced Mind Therapists as proof of George's credentials."

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com / via: news.bbc.co.uk

Henrietta

"Whether or not she truly is prone to sudden unconsciousness, sifting fact from fiction in the biography of Gillian McKeith – whose website optimistically describes her as a 'World Renowned Holistic Nutritionist' – can be quite a task.

In 2007, for instance, she dropped the 'Dr' from her name, after her distance-learning PhD in holistic nutrition from the American Holistic College of Nutrition was deemed insufficient to warrant the honorific: the aforementioned institution was not accredited by any recognised educational authority. Meanwhile, the journalist Dr Ben Goldacre called into question the merits of her membership of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants. He'd paid $60 to acquire identical certification in the name of his dead cat, Henrietta."

Source: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu6sq2pnaR1qi9jqgo1_500.jpg / via: independent.co.uk

Kitty O'Malley