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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Breaking The Silence: The Veterinarian’S Duty To Report, Martine Lachance
Breaking The Silence: The Veterinarian’S Duty To Report, Martine Lachance
Animal Sentience
Animals, like children and disabled elders, are not only the subjects of abuse, but they are unable to report and protect themselves from it. Veterinarians, like human physicians, are often the ones to become aware of the abuse and the only ones in a position to report it when their human clients are unwilling to do so. This creates a conflict between professional confidentiality to the client and the duty to protect the victim and facilitate prosecution when the law has been broken. I accordingly recommend that veterinarian associations make reporting of abuse mandatory.
Veterinarians Need Support To Break The Silence, Anne Fawcett
Veterinarians Need Support To Break The Silence, Anne Fawcett
Animal Sentience
The question of whether reporting animal abuse should be mandatory for veterinarians is an important one. Veterinarians have dual obligations, both to their animal patients and to their human clients. Mandatory reporting can only be supported in a context in which veterinary professionals are (a) trained to recognise the signs of animal abuse; (b) trained to elicit a history sensitively from clients who may themselves be victims of abuse or supported in doing so; (c) supported by appropriate, responsive authorities; (d) reasonably protected from legal recriminations.