(COLORADO SPRINGS) — New regulations could change how pet owners are expected to care for their pets before they interact with other animals in boarding and grooming facilities.

The Pet and Animal Care Facility Act (PACFA) has been around for almost 30 years to ensure breeders, boarders, and groomers help keep animals safe and healthy.

“In the summer of 2023…. there was kind of an illness going around called canine respiratory disease,” said Program chief of PACA, Nick Fisher. “What kind of happened during that summer was there were a few boarding facilities that actually shut down for a couple of weeks.”

Following the outbreak, PACFA is aiming to make new regulations that could mandate vaccines like Bordetella, Parvo, Lepto, and more.

However, groomers worry that these new regulations will keep people from coming to the groomer altogether, because it is their personal choice to get their pets groomed and the added cost to get their pets vaccinated might become a barrier.

“They’re going to have to go to the vet and they’re either going to have to get these vaccines that they either, maybe they’re not comfortable getting or maybe they don’t have the funds to get it, because that’s a whole other cost in order to come in to the dog groomer,” said Chrisandra Burden, a groomer at Soggy Dogs.

PACFA is looking for community feedback in April on these new regulations, and you can sign up to testify by clicking the link above once PACFA enables the option.

If approved, the new regulations would go into effect in July.