When I read Wolfy's post, my first thought was that in one area - bites
and injuries - comparing ferrets with other pet species (which is where
it might be of benefit) is going to be difficult. Wolfy wrote "I'd like
to know many bites out of how many dogs occur (frequency rates)? How
many bites out of how many pet ferrets in the populations?"
I thought of that and it does not come out well if you look at numbers
of bites in several years (eg in a ten year period) this is because
there will be several generations (at least two) of ferrets in that
period, but one of dogs. So ten million dogs might be quoted as having
200 bites in that ten year period, and 330,000 ferrets (30 times less
the number of dogs) might have 10 bite incidents. So it would look as
though the bite numbers were worse for ferrets - even though in that
time the ferrets would have been comprised of twice as many animals
because of the shorter lifespan.
As far as numbers are concerned
Ferret numbers
Very shaky estimates. For "ownership" numbers (and that means each
household) which would be one method for estimating number of ferrets
in the US, ferrets are lumped in with small pets - rabbits and rodents
by two organizations - the AVMA (American veterinary medical
association) and APPA (American Pet Products Association). The USDA has
info compiled from both agencies (see link below) Neither separates
ferrets out of the "small mammals" category of rodents, rabbits and
ferrets".
http://jerconsultingllc.com/US_Pet_Population_Estimates_2-2010.pdf
The APPA suggests there are 116 small animal pets per 1000
households. (defined as rats, hamsters, ferrets, turtles, rabbits as
compared with other pets) Assuming ferrets occupy (being conservative)
one fifth of those households (rats, hamsters and rabbits etc probably
cheaper and more popular) we get (rounding off) ferrets as 23 per 1000
households. Usually we have 2-3 ferrets (sometimes more) at least per
house, giving say 69 - call it 70 ferrets per 1000 pet owning
households. Using AVMA's figure of households owning "small pets" as
4,468,000, and assuming the 70 ferrets we get about 312,000 ferrets in
the US. Who knows exactly if this is right - might be low since some
folks suggest 2 million. Not having an accurate number means you cannot
calculate bites per thousand ferrets. Whereas probably the dog numbers
are better verified
Dogs - On
http://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp
they suggest between 72 million and 77 million dogs in 42,000-45,000
households.
Bites, Injuries, Deaths from Ferrets and Dogs
Deaths:
Here's 2010 Dog Bite statistics.
http://www.dogsbite.org/bite-fatalities-2010.htm
33 people killed of which 20 were children. 18 were five years old or
younger - several were babies. These are in a pdf link below if you'd
like to download it:
http://www.dogsbite.org/fatalities/2010-fatal-dog-attacks-dogsbite.pdf
No deaths for ferrets - which is good
Bites without deaths of humans - much tougher - not much documentation
for 2010 for either species, and tough to find statistics that can be
used to even estimate bites per each species.
I found the following estimates with regard to ferrets on Dr Erica
Matulich's site -
http://www.cypresskeep.com/Ferretfiles/Legal1-FM.htm
but the site is dated 2000 so the data is old and I'm sure newer
statistics would be hard to come by.
She says (talking about ferrets):
"the number of actual bite incidences reported to the CDC and studied
by the AVMA is very low (estimated at 65 incidences per year, on
average). And the number of severe cases is even lower, at about 15 per
year across the entire U.S. population. In comparison, dogs bite about
3.5 MILLION people annually, and cats about a half-million people
annually. But, you might argue, there are lots more dogs and cats
out there than ferrets! That is true, so let's translate the bite
statistics into "per capita" or per ferret incidences. This calculation
requires that one know the actual population of ferrets, which is more
difficult to determine than that for cats and dogs. An extremely
conservative 1991 AVMA population estimate was 278,000. However,
Marshall Farms alone has bred and sold over 600,000 ferrets.
Performance Foods, manufacturers of Totally Ferret Food estimates a
U.S. ferret population of 8-10 million. Even at the most conservative
(and unrealistically low) estimate, you are 275 times more likely to
be bitten by a dog than a ferret. In fact, you are more likely to be
bitten by a cat, rabbit, snake, or even a human being than a domestic
ferret. At a more reasonable ferret population estimate, you are almost
5,000 times more likely to be bitten by a dog than a ferret. These
statistics show that ferrets are just not as likely to bite, even when
provoked. However, the ASPCA and the HSUS warn that "NO pet should be
left unsupervised with a child."
Note : I'm not sure where the 65 ferret bite instances a year comes
from - no attribution to a publication that I can find maybe the
statistic came from an unofficial survey. I'm assuming it means bites
reported to authorities rather than the usual non injuring nips.
Ferret Bite statistics
I have a copy of Dr Graening's report which Pat Wright commissioned -
it does have a pretty extensive account of ferret "attacks" and
mentions 2 infant deaths in the US in Oregon. The stats are on page
103 - this is the link to the report
http://ferretsanon.com/EIR/Final_Report.pdf
(It isn't actually an EIR )- it's a preliminary survey and I think is
not in its final format - there are a few errors in the text.
So, three infant injuries in the US so far from say 300,000 ferrets,
over a ten year period one death in London a long time ago - have lost
the link. One child injured in France in 2007 - that reference also had
a keyword "neglect"
Dog bites injuring humans statistics
In 2001 a CDC survey
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/sep03/030915i.asp
showed "In its analysis, the CDC estimates 368,245 persons were
treated. Injury rates were highest among 5- to 9-year-old children."
Also on the javma site
http://www.avma.org/press/story_ideas/dog_bites.asp
"Every year more than 4.7 million people are bitten by a dog, and dog
bite victims requiring medical attention in the United States number
approximately 800,000 annually"
So from that one 16.4 bites per dog owned. Number of people killed by
dogs was 33 in 2010, (I saw that statistic somewhere but lost the site
- can anyone verify it?)and for earlier statistics - this the summary
which states that 227 human deaths due to dogs occurred between 1979
and 1996:
http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/images/dogbreeds-a.pdf
from which I quote -
So for about an estimated ferret population of half a million - no
adult deaths in the US ever listed, but 2 babies. So For 75 million
dogs we have over 300 deaths and several infants (did not separate
them out)
Over
I rest my case!
Meryl
[Posted in FML 6949]
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