Joanne sent a list of links yesterday, including one to a report from Texas listing severe bite cases. A better place to find this document and others like it is at the state's site. Note that they offer a definition for these bites as follows: "A severe attack is defined as one in which the animal repeatedly bites or vigorously shakes its human victim, and the victim, or a person intervening, has extreme difficulty terminating the attack. A severe bite is defined as a puncture or laceration made by an animal s teeth which breaks the person s skin, resulting in a degree of trauma which would cause most prudent and reasonable people to seek medical care for treatment of the wound, without consideration of rabies prevention alone." The reports for 1996 through 2000 are available online. http://www.tdh.texas.gov/zoonosis/resppet/BITES/bites.asp I have a hard copy of a report that covers the years 1991-1995. They show: 1996 ferret bites: 1 1999 ferret bites: 1 91-95 ferret bites: 2 10-year total: 4 I can't find the 91-95 document to check other species numbers right now, but in the years online notice that MOUSE bites (not rats, they're listed separately) and HAMSTER bites count up to the same number as ferrets (2 each species). Dog and cat bites over the 10 year period number into the thousands and hundreds respectively. Just a little perspective. Debra in Fort Worth [Posted in FML issue 3666]