The Dog Merchants: Inside the Big Business of Breeders, Pet Stores, and Rescuers

Kim Kavin

May 2016 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Tamara Marston

About this audiobook

We love them with all our hearts, but do we really know where our dogs came from? Kim Kavin reveals the complex network behind the $11-billion-a-year business of selling dogs. A must-listen for the benefit of all dogs everywhere.

In what promises to become an Omnivore’s Dilemma for dog lovers—breed devotees and adoption advocates alike—The Dog Merchants is the first book to explain the complex and often surprisingly similar business practices that extend from the American Kennel Club to local shelters, from Westminster champions to dog auctions.

Without judging dog lovers of any stripe, The Dog Merchants makes it clear that money spent among these dog merchants has real-world effects on people and canines. Kavin reveals how dog merchants create markets for dogs, often in defiance of the usual rules of supply and demand. She takes an investigative approach and meets breeders and rescuers at all levels, shedding much-needed light on an industry that most people don’t even realize is an industry.

Kavin’s goal is to advance the conversation about how all dogs are treated, from puppy mills to high-kill shelters. She shows that a great deal can be improved by understanding the business practices behind selling dogs of all kinds. Instead of pitting rescue and purebred people against each other, The Dog Merchants shows how all dog lovers can come together, with one voice as consumers, on behalf of all our beloved companions.

Ratings and reviews

I can agree with most of this, however, when it comes to ethical (key word ethical) breeders it's not a money making business. In fact there is no money in it. If puppy mills and backyard breeders where shut down there would be a drastic change in the amount of dogs in the shelters and eventually none. Ethical breeders are the future for dogs and the health and temperaments. Without out them dogs would have many more health issues, behavior issues, and it would be overwhelming how much the neglect abuse would rise along with a HUGE increase of dogs dumped at shelters.

About the author

Kim Kavin is a widely published award-winning journalist, as well as a volunteer worker dedicated to fostering puppies who have been saved from high-kill shelters. She lives in Long Valley, New Jersey, where her hobbies include cooking, wine tasting, and hiking local park trails with her dogs, Blue and Ginger.

Tamara Marston has been an actor, singer, and director for more than thirty years. A career performer and musician, she has toured nationally with several groups and appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show and A&E’s Goodtime Café. Dividing her time between acting and singing gigs, choral conducting, music and stage directing, jingle and voice-over work, private and public teaching, and family, Tami feels very fortunate to make her living working in the arts.