Award-Winning Journalism about the Dog Industry
The Dog Merchants brand grew out of the book The Dog Merchants: Inside the Big Business of Breeders, Pet Stores, and Rescuers. Published in 2016, the book earned multiple national awards and led to lawmakers in several U.S. states introducing or altering animal-welfare legislation. The book also became required reading for animal-welfare and other students at several American universities.
This website features the book as well as other articles and books about the dog industry by The Dog Merchants author Kim Kavin.
Where are the Ratings and Reviews?
It’s true, as written in The Dog Merchants book, that this site was originally conceived as an online place where consumers could post ratings and reviews of breeders, pet stores, rescuers and shelters. After several years of attempting to gain traction for that type of site—and receiving countless threats of lawsuits from breeders and rescuers who feared reviews of their businesses being posted (one breeder went so far as to file a police complaint)—Kavin decided to change the site’s focus to feature her investigative work into the dog industry.
The goal of The Dog Merchants brand remains the same: To get as much real information as possible into the hands of anyone looking to bring home a pet dog.
The Dog Merchants on Facebook and Twitter
You can join the conversation about news of the day in the dog industry by following The Dog Merchants on social media: