When Gov. Jay Inlsee ordered non-essential businesses in Washington to close to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Tracie Lindsey listened because she knew lives were at stake.

“If us not being there, customers not coming in, lessened the curve, I was willing to take that hit for the greater good,” she said.

Lindsey runs Dee’s Dog Grooming, at 3809 N. Walnut St., a business her mother opened in 1982.

The salon is not in danger of going out of business right now, Lindsey said, although other small dog grooming businesses that complied with the orders are.

And that upsets Lindsey, especially because big-business shops that sell pet food have been deemed essential, allowing them to remain open and continue to offer grooming services.

“It’s the small business owners that are gonna take the biggest brunt in all of this,” Lindsey said. “I don’t care what bailout packages they have, we’re taking the brunt.”

To keep employees and customers safe, Lindsey closed down all her services. But she still has to keep up with property taxes, utilities and advertising payments.

Pet supply stores shouldn’t be offering grooming services right now, said Penny Thomas, public information officer at the Washington State Department of Commerce. The only exception to offering those services is if the care is essential for the health of the animal. But they’re required to submit an essential business inquiry on a case by case basis.

Pet supply stores are allowed to remain open but should have closed their pet grooming services until the closures of nonessential services is lifted, said Mike Faulk, deputy communications director for the governor’s office in an email.

On March 19, Petco CEO Ron Coughlin issued an update on the company’s website stating that the number of appointments for grooming services were reduced to increase social distancing and some salons were closed to comply with city mandates. Petco is still offering grooming services in their Spokane locations despite those services being on the list of nonessential businesses.

PetSmart suspended grooming services on March 21 to consider how to best serve customers and pets, but re-opened on April 6 in some locations outside of Washington, said Erin Gray, senior corporate communications manager for PetSmart.

The decision to reopen was made because regular grooming is essential to a pet’s health, according to their website.

A PetSmart in North Spokane was offering grooming services at least until last Tuesday, Lindsey said. But in a call to the store later in the week, a recorded message said those services were no longer available and an employee later confirmed that.

Lindsey agreed grooming services are important to a pet’s health but small businesses are disadvantaged because they can’t afford lawyers to fight because they’re shut down. Small businesses would be able to offer zero-human-contact services better than the bigger stores, she added.

As social distancing and the governor’s order begin to work against the virus, Lindsey believes nonessential businesses should be re-evaluated for opening.

The first steps to handling business complaints is to notify the business of the violation and let owners or managers know their business license could be taken away, Inslee said during a press conference. The final step will be to refer the business to the attorney general’s office about their violation, which is a gross misdemeanor.

Lindsey called the Commerce Department to report the suspected violation, and left her contact information but has yet to hear back. The compliance unit set up to receive complaints about nonessential business operations has received about 16,000 complaints that it referred to the appropriate agency. It has sent email notifications acknowledging the complaints to about 8,000 people so far, and another 3,442 still require research to determine the nature of the business and validity of the complaint, according to information from the state’s Emergency Operations Center.

People have contacted Inslee’s office and Lindsey said she filed a formal complaint through the Department of Commerce but nothing has been done about the continued grooming services.

Everybody needs to do their part and comply with state orders so the curve can slow down and the shutdown is lifted, she said.