Citation

Munr0 HMC, Thrusfield MV. J. Small Anim. Pract. 2001; 42(5): 218-226.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, British Small Animal Veterinary Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1748-5827.2001.tb02024.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A study of veterinarians' perceptions, and experience, of non-accidental injury (NAI) to pets was undertaken using an anonymous questionnaire distributed to a random sample of 1000 small animal practitioners in the UK. NAI was acknowledged by 91-3 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 88-2 to 93-9 per cent) of the 404 respondents who returned questionnaires, of whom 48-3 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 43-4 to 53-1 per cent) had either suspected or seen NAI. Four hundred and forty-eight cases were documented, predominantly in dogs (243) and cats (182). Factors either raising suspicion, or facilitating recognition, of NAI included: implication of a particular person, features of the history, referral agency involvement, behaviour of the owner and/or the animal, nature of the injuries, and socioeconomic class of owners. Additionally, sexual abuse and suspected cases of Munchausen syndrome by proxy were recorded.