English as she is spoke.

Anybody else find this modern usage of the word "grooming" to mean befriending a vulnerable person with the intention of sexually abusing them a prostitution of the language?  It's a word with a perfectly respectable history and definition which has nothing to do with anything unsavory.  But now those who look after horses or run dog and cat beauty parlours have to be careful about how they describe what they do.  Who came up with it, and why?  Is it just a matter of linguistic laziness?