TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2001//
TI  - ‘Battered pets’: features that raise suspicion of non‐accidental injury
JO  - Journal of Small Animal Practice
A1  - Munr0, H. m. C.
A1  - Thrusfield, M. V.
SP  - 218
EP  - 226
VL  - 42
IS  - 5
N2  - 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.<p /> 
LA  - 
SN  - 0022-4510
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5827.2001.tb02024.x
ID  - ref1
ER  -