Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXVIII, Issue 1
Written by Gergana BALIEVA, Savaş Volcan GENÇ
Veterinarians as professionals play a major role in the wellbeing of their patients. Ensuring the animals' needs and healthcare, however, is not enough when the whole society should be involved in improving animal welfare and preventing maltreatment and animal cruelty. Our study focused on the veterinary practitioners as specialists who should be able to recognize types of animal abuse and understand its role in interpersonal violence. For this purpose, an anonymous written questionnaire was distributed among veterinarians in Bulgaria and Turkey. The results showed that the professionals' understanding on the nature of animal cruelty was influenced by respondents' demographics and over 80% of Bulgarian and Turkish veterinarians agreed on the ability of animals to experience emotions (P<0.05). The most recognized type of animal cruelty was physical abuse combined with neglect. The majority of the practitioners in both countries have awareness on the link between animal abuse and violence against people. These perceptions were affected to some extent by factors like gender and pet ownership (P<0.05).
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