AAHA’s new One Health guidelines demonstrate the importance of care through a One Health lens

Content warning: domestic violence, intimate partner abuse

The brand new 2025 AAHA One Health Guidelines: Navigating Cross-Disciplinary Partnerships—launching today!—were created to help veterinary practices better serve patients and their families through a family-centered, collaborative approach to both animal and human health care.

Veterinary professionals tend to be quite familiar with some of the clinical aspects of One Health, such as the importance of preventing and treating zoonotic disease. However, when we take a family-centered approach to providing care and view the families we serve through a One Health lens, it’s possible to make an impact in ways that go well beyond the exam room.

Here, we present an abbreviated version of one of the case studies in the One Health Guidelines: Navigating Cross-Disciplinary Partnerships. (For the full case study, including its resolution, be sure to read the guidelines at aaha.org/onehealthpartnerships.) We invite you to consider how a similar situation might be handled in your clinic—and whether there’s anything you can do to prepare your team to assist in an intimate partner violence situation in the future.

One Health case study: Safe place and support for humans and animals affected by intimate partner violence

Jenny adopted Buster as a puppy from the shelter right after graduating from college 10 years ago. Since then, the veterinary team at All Friends Animal Hospital got to know both Jenny and Buster over the years as she started her career, bought a house, and met and married her husband, Jack.

From the beginning, Jenny was always cheery and talkative. The veterinary team noticed her kindness and devotion to Buster. Team members found each appointment enjoyable and wished that every client took as good care of their four-legged family member as she did.

Several months ago, Jenny brought Buster in for his routine wellness examination. Her husband accompanied her for the first time, and she was much quieter than usual. The team also noticed that Jack made the decisions for Buster’s care and cut Jenny off if she tried to ask a question. While he seemed to be nice enough, the veterinary team sensed tension between them.

Buster’s examination found him in good health, but the veterinarian, Dr. Zayid, observed that Buster avoided getting close to Jack and kept his focus on Jenny.

How to recognize signs of suspected abuse

The next time Jack and Jenny brought Buster in for an appointment, Buster arrived injured, with fleas, and having lost weight. Jenny mentioned that Buster now lived in the yard because Jack hated Buster’s hair all over everything. Jack responded, “Jenny worries about everything when she doesn’t need to. It’s frustrating to hear her go on and on about Buster.”

Though he said he thought the “dog was fine,” Jack agreed to radiographs to further assess Buster’s injuries. Radiographs showed broken ribs in various stages of healing. When she asked further questions about Buster’s injuries, Jack said Buster kept trying to jump the fence, and he must have fallen and broken his ribs. However, Dr. Zayid recognized that repeated falls could not have caused Buster’s injuries. The CrVT assisting Dr. Zayid, Amanda, had also noticed bruising around Jenny’s wrists and mentioned this privately to Dr. Zayid when they were back in the treatment area.

While in the room, Dr. Zayid said they needed some help keeping Buster calm and asked Jenny to accompany Amanda to the back of the clinic. She then escorted Jack to the front reception area and asked him to wait there. Dr. Zayid was concerned that Jenny and Buster were victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and knew that their state is one of the states that considers practicing veterinarians a mandated reporter of suspected animal abuse—requiring a report to local law enforcement within 24 hours. She decided that attempting to separate Jack and Jenny to speak to Jenny alone would be the best approach in this situation.

Having studied One Health perspectives on intimate partner violence, Dr. Zayid knew that violence toward companion animals in the household is also often present. Abusers will assault the family pet or any animal to intimidate and invoke fear in their partner and other members of the family. Violence directed at the family pet often continues alongside abuse of other family members, and the family pet may be the only source of comfort for IPV victims. Out of fear and concern for their pet, it is not uncommon for an individual to stay in their living situation unless they can take their pet with them.

What would you do next?

The remainder of this case study can be found in the guidelines (aaha.org/onehealthpartnerships), but before you find out how Dr. Zayid and her team proceeded, take a few minutes to ask yourself the following questions:

• If you were Dr. Zayid, how would you approach this topic with Jenny?
• Do you know your state’s laws regarding what you’re required to report in the case of IPV?
• What resources does your practice have available for a client in Jenny’s position? What about your community? Do you have domestic violence hotline numbers handy, or contacts at a local shelter?
• How would you discuss this scenario with your team in a debrief?

Working with your team to learn how to identify abusive situations, how to approach and assist people in those relationships, and how to connect them with resources that get them (and their pets) to safety is not a small task. Fortunately, there are numerous resources, many of which are shared in the new guidelines, that can facilitate this learning and help ensure your practice is a One Health safe space for clients and pets in need.

Further reading and resources

ASPCA: Recognizing and reporting animal abuse and neglect. ASPCA.org.

AVMA: The veterinarian’s framework for identification and response to suspected or known animal maltreatment. 2023. AVMA.org.

Cleary M, Thapa DK, West S, et al. Animal abuse in the context of adult intimate partner violence: A systematic review. Aggress Violent Behav 2021;61(101676):101676.

Cornell Law School: Domestic Violence and Workplace Model Policy Toolkit. Cornell.edu.

Ferguson S. What are the signs of domestic violence? Psychcentral. com. February 17, 2022.

Hamberger LK, Rhodes K, Brown J. Screening and intervention for intimate partner violence in health care settings: creating sustainable system-level programs. J Womens Health (Larchmt) 2015;24(1):86–91.

Larkin M. When domestic violence arrives at the clinic door. AVMA. org. August 19, 2018.

Mota-Rojas D, Monsalve S, Lezama-García K, et al. Animal abuse as an indicator of domestic violence: One Health, One Welfare approach. Animals (Basel) 2022;12(8):977.

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ncadv.org)

National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or text START to 88788

Otteman K, Fielder L, Lewis E. Fighting against animal cruelty. Veterinary Practice News. November 19, 2024.

Purple Leash Project: assists domestic violence shelters by funding pet-friendly renovations.

Rivas C, Vigurs C, Cameron J, Yeo L. A realist review of which advocacy interventions work for which abused women under what circumstances. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2019;6(6):CD013135.

Tong, L. Identifying non-accidental injury cases in veterinary practice. In Practice 2016;38(2).

URIPals: Escaping domestic violence as a pet owner. Urban Resource Institute. 2015.

Vatnar S, Bø K, Leer-Salvesen K, et al. Mandatory reporting of intimate partner violence: a mixed methods systematic review. Trauma Violence Abuse 2021;22(4):635–55.

Waalen J, Goodwin MM, Spitz AM, et al. Screening for intimate partner violence by health care providers: barriers and interventions. Am J Prev Med 2000;19(4):230–37.

Wisch R. Table of veterinary reporting requirement and immunity. Animal Legal and Historical Center, Michigan State University College of Law. 2023.

Zonta International USA Caucus: information on local area resources and needs to combat domestic violence.

Photo Credit: AleksandarNakic via E+ 

Disclaimer: Trends content is meant to inform, educate, and inspire by providing an array of diverse viewpoints. Any content published should not be viewed as an official stance, position, or endorsement by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) or its Board of Directors.