Dog groomers push to be declared necessary service

A Smiths Falls dog groomer is organizing a letter-writing campaign to push the province to grant those in her line of work a COVID-19 lockdown exemption, arguing that groomers should be considered an necessary service.

Ann Curran says going without nail and hair trimming can cause some serious problems for some pets.

“A lot of these dogs… grow a lot of hair in their ears and some of them have to have their ears plucked on a regular basis,” says Curran. “A dog will have an ear problem, and a vet will say to an owner, 'You need to get the groomer to pluck that dog's ears.'”

The current version of the Reopening Ontario Act, which sets out the province's lockdown restrictions, allows veterinarians to open, as well as “businesses that provide services to animals that are necessary for their health and welfare,” which include boarding kennels and farms. Curran argues that groomers should also be in that category.

“We should be able to get our dogs groomed, because it is necessary for the health and well-being of the animal,” Curran tells CityNews Ottawa.

Curran used social media to urge her fellow owners and their clients to write to their elected officials, urging them to grant groomers a lockdown exception.

“The response was overwhelming, of the groomers in Ontario who reached out and got the documents, and then reached out to their clients,” says Curran. “I'm not surprised that we haven't heard that there's been a change yet, but I'm confident that we are going to.”